


What Makes Us Whole

by blue_blondie101



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: All Metaphorical, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Steven Universe Fusion, Eventual Romance, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Not A Gem AU, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-04-01 09:37:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 24,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13995501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_blondie101/pseuds/blue_blondie101
Summary: He cried out in pain as memories flashed before his eyes. Memories of an old shack in the desert; papers, photos, and graphs hung up on a wall, a man with long brown hair walking out of a front door, black hair, indigo eyes, love, frustration and hope, despair,Fury.Memories of a family photo, two pilot lists, a planet shrinking and shrinking and shrinking until it was invisible to the eye, brown hair, blue eyes, love, discouragement and excitement, heartbreak,Sentiment.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so this is a Klance Fusion AU fanfic and let me get some stuff out of the way because of the tags. 1: this will have implied sexual and homophobic themes because this is Steven Universe-based fusion with two males. Nothing heavy, but still kinda there if you squint. 2: I'm putting a disclaimer because, like in Steven Universe, there is implied abusive relationships between two of the characters. Again, nothing extreme, but I felt like I still should put a disclaimer.

The shipment was meant to be a secret. The only thing the Paladin's knew was that it was important and could only be discussed face-to-face. It was too precious and powerful to let fall into Galra hands, even by accident through a signal hack or communication error. Allura didn't even know what they were going to get.  
That didn't stop Lance from asking what it was over and over again.  
"For the thirtieth time, Lance, I have no idea what we are going to get." Shiro sighed, annoyed with Lance's continuous pestering. "All we know is that it is extremely powerful and dangerous in Galra hands."  
"Come on! We've been to a Balmera before and know that they make those crystal-whatevers. What else could be on it besides rocks? That's all there is!" Lance groaned,  
"Actually," Coran jumped in, "since Balmeras are fossilized beasts, sometimes you can find chipped off pieces that-" he was quickly shut up by a glare from Lance, his expression drooping along with his pointy ears.  
"Guys, who cares what the package is, they're Balmerans; we can trust them, I know it." Hunk assured,  
"You're only saying that because your girlfriend's a Balmeran!" Pidge teased, starting an argument between her and Hunk about how Shay was not Hunk's girlfriend.  
"Okay, enough you two," Shiro cut in, pulling on his helmet with Keith at his side as the Castle of Lions came to a stop, "we're here. Let's make a good impression."  
Lance smiled at that, putting on his helmet quickly and walking with a confident swagger to the rear of the team as they walked onto the Balmera.  
Keith fell back and looked at Lance as if he had just eaten a weird space bug whole,  
"What are you doing?" He asked,  
"Shiro said to make an impression." Lance deadpanned,  
"Yeah, a good one."  
Lance glared and started to make a comeback, but was quickly silenced by a glare from Allura who then turned her attention to a Balmeran coming their way.  
This Balmeran was short, stout, and pretty old, looking as if he waddled instead of walked. He wore a necklace of multicolored crystals around his pudgy neck that jingled as he walked. Lance thought he looked like a Balmeran version of Santa Clause or his Grandpa Lucas.  
'Lets not think about that...' Lance thought sadly but shook away his despair as the Balmeran spoke.  
"Greetings Paladin's, I am called Prox. Balmera and Balmerans alike give much thanks to you for your coming to our aid." The Balmeran-- Prox-- greeted, shaking Shiro's hand.  
"It was no trouble at all, we are ready to assist you in any way we can." Allura said sincerely, "I am Princess Allura of Altea, and this is my Royal Advisor, Coran, and the Voltron Paladins: Shiro, Keith, Lance, Pidge, and Hunk," she pointed out everyone as she spoke, "and you are always welcome to call for help whenever you need to."  
"Great, now that introductions are over with, what exactly are we helping you smuggle out of here?" Lance interrupted,  
"Lance! Excuse his rudeness, he only wishes to get started." The Princess apologized, but Prox just gave a throaty chuckle.  
"No need. Come, I will show you to the mines." He waved a hand in the direction of a mining cave and started waddling down it, leading the group into the darkness.  
Lance walked behind the group, looking around aimlessly as Allura talked with Prox up at the front of the group until his eyes landed on Keith. The Red Paladin showed no emotion, as usual. Lance could never understand how Keith could seem so emotionless but also have the hottest and most volatile temper. Lance felt like he had a good balance with his emotions most of the time, at least on Earth, so it baffled him that Keith could go 1 to 100 in the blink of an eye. It was just another mystery about one of his teammates.  
The Blue Paladin looked back to the front of the group and halted next to some minecarts filled with, you guessed it, rocks. Crystals, yes, but still rocks. Small translucent shards that had an almost magnetic pull to the Paladins, or at least Lance felt it.  
"Told you." Lance gloated to no one in particular, his smugness wiped away when he saw Coran and Allura's shared horror at the crystals.  
"I-I thought Balmeras stopped creating these long ago." Allura finally commented, a shadow of panic washing over her features.  
Prox shook his head, eyes filled with remorse, "I am afraid we were mistaken. Balmera has many secrets." He placed a hand on the wall of the cave lovingly.  
"Um, sorry to interrupt," Lance butted in, raising a crystal to his eyes to examine it, "but what exactly are these things?"  
"Put that down!" Allura demanded, snatching it out of his hand and putting it back in the cart. The Paladins looked at Allura in surprise, not used to seeing the princess lash out so violently about something that seemed so small. Coran placed a gentle hand on Allura's shoulder and spoke,  
"These shards are, for lack of a better term, Fusion Crystals. They take molecules from two things and mix them up to make a whole new object."  
Pidge circled the cart holding the crystals, examining them from every possible angle, "So it's removing the Coulomb Barrier on the molecular level! I didn't think that was possible- the atoms would have to be charged up to almost light speed to remove the barrier, and both carts should have been toast by then unless the crystals acted as a natural coolant and-"   
"English Pidge." Lance commented jokingly, earning a glare from the Green Paladin before she pushed up her glasses.  
"You take one thing and another thing, make them go super fast, and get a new and better thing." She explained, sounding exhausted from dumbing down her speech. Lance just stuck out his tongue childishly at her.  
"I'm not completely sure about what you just said, but on some level, yes, they work like that. It's a very old and complex magic that hasn't been used since Allura was a child. No older than some of you." Coran explained, reminiscing slightly before Shiro asked, "Can you give us a demonstration?"  
"Certainly!" Coran replied enthusiastically, shaking out of his memories as he took two crystals from the cart and placed them on two empty carts on the tracks behind it. He tapped their centers, causing them to give off a slight glow and pushed the carts together. They melted together in a bright white light and left one larger cart where they combined, the two stones embedded into the surface.  
The group looked at it in awe, Pidge circling around every angle of the newly fused cart.  
"What else can it fuse?!" She asked excitedly, stars in her eyes,  
"Many things," Coran started listing them on his fingers, "plants, mundane objects, artillery, even entire battle cruisers if needed. We used to fuse different ships together to try and find the strongest and fastest one possible. These little babies are extremely strong and can fuse anything."  
"What about people?" Lance asked, stunning Coran into speechlessness,  
"W-well yes, technically, but-"  
"It is forbidden and none of you will even think about attempting it!" Allura ordered.  
The group could only be still as they gave a complacent nod, too afraid of the Altean Princess's anger. Allura took a deep breath and turned to Prox who was patiently waiting by the crystals,  
"The plan was to transport these crystals to the Olkari to study, correct?" She asked,  
"Indeed Princess, we wish to start at dawn tomorrow, so please rest and gather strength until then." The Balmeran answered.  
"Perfect,--" she tapped the centers of the crystals in the cart, splitting it apart with another, yet duller, flash of light and placing the crystals back into their proper cart, "--in the mean time, I was going to socialize with some of the other Balmerans here," Allura clapped her hands together at the decision then turned to Hunk, "Hunk, would you care to join me?"  
"Not at all, Princess." He accepted, following her and Prox as they exited the mines.  
"I'm headed to the hangar to work on the Green Lion, later!" Pidge called as she ran towards the castle.  
"I'm going to go ahead and get things set up in the castle for the shipment, if anyone would like to join me I would appreciate the help." Coran twirled his mustache between his fingers as he not-so subtly hinted at his want for assistance.  
Shiro sighed with a small smile and raised his hand, "I'll come help Coran."  
"Wonderful!" The Altean cheered, all but pulling Shiro with him out of the mine.  
That just left Keith and Lance.  
Keith stretched his arms above his head and gave a little groan,  
"I'm going to the training deck, so don't break anything."  
"Wouldn't dream of it, mullet-head." Lance retorted before being left alone in the caves. He looked side to side to see if there was anyone left and smiled when he came to the conclusion that there was no one. He quickly grabbed two crystals from the cart and pocketed them away, walking out of the caves as if nothing was wrong.  
"It's just a quick experiment," he told himself, "what could happen?"

Keith stumbled into his room tiredly, sweat drenching his black shirt and the towel around his neck.  
Despite the soakage, he fell onto his clean, comfortable bed and laid there in slight pain. Although training was excruciating most times, he knew it was worth it in the end and sometimes enjoyed it as a way to let off some steam. He refused to complain about the ache in his body, not to himself or anyone else.  
Until someone knocked on his door.  
Groaning, he grudgingly stood up and opened his door, surprised to see Lance of all people standing on the other side, standing stiffly with his hands stuffed in his dark green jacket.  
"What do you want, Lance?" He snapped.  
Lance showed himself in and closed the door behind him, confusing and somewhat angering Keith.  
"Hey, this isn't your room! You can't just barge in here and-"  
"Shut up for a tick; I've got something." Lance said giddily, looking like a child on Christmas Day. Keith crossed his arms boredly, letting Lance show him whatever was hidden in the pockets. Lance took his chance and pulled out two fusion crystals, making Keith gape at him before yelling,  
"You stole those crystals!"  
"'Stole' is such a strong word, I prefer borrowed." Lance countered,  
"What do you even have those things for? You know Allura will get ticked if she finds out about this." Keith went off, getting Lance to roll his eyes,  
"C'mon, you have no sense of adventure," Lance complained, "I mean, don't you wanna see what else this little baby can do?"  
Now that sparked Keith's interest.  
"Like what?" He asked,  
Lance smiled, "Like fusing people?"  
Keith actually laughed at that!  
But Lance didn't laugh.  
"Oh Quiznak, you're being serious." Keith sobered up, especially when Lance nodded in agreement.  
Keith scowled, "Allura said we shouldn't do that, and we don't know what will happen."  
Lance frowned and thought to himself before smiling devilishly, looking at Keith dead in the eye as he asked, "You scared?"  
"No!" Keith growled out, offended that Lance would even think he was scared.  
Lance circled around Keith, eyeing him like a tiger hunting; preparing for the kill.  
"Really? 'Cause it sounds like you're afraid." He came up around Keith, holding the crystal out in front of the Red Paladin as he hissed in his ear, "Big bad Keith, afraid of a tiny pebble."  
"I'm not afraid!" Keith snarled, snatching the crystal out of Lance's hand and tapping its center while Lance held his own in his other hand. Keith gave the Blue Paladin one last defiant look before grabbing his wrist.  
And the whole world went white.


	2. Chapter Two

He felt the crystals before he opened his eyes. They were smooth but sharp; beautiful but dangerous. He remembered someone telling him they were dangerous. Someone important.  
Guess He didn't listen, considering they were embeded into his palms.  
He opened his eyes and sat up with his first breath, gasping and clenching his fists as if He would find anything but the cold crystals embedded there. What He did feel was sick, as if he had run around the world twice without stopping, but he also felt hot. Unbearably hot. Burning to the touch.  
He looked at his surroundings, taking in the familiar room, but not really knowing where He was and how He knew the place. He didn't stand, just sat on the ground and rubbed his thumbs against the gems in his palms. Where was He? How did He get there? He remembered a bright light before everything went black and He woke up, but He could barely remember a thing, just had an uneasy feeling that he was meant to be doing something-- BEING someone, not sitting there like an empty shell. He sighed in frustration and exhaustion, looking down at his hands and running his finger around the gem in his left palm aimlessly, tracing the angry red lines around the gem.  
Red.  
Keith.  
He cried out in pain as memories flashed before his eyes. Memories of an old shack in the desert; papers, photos, and graphs hung up on a wall, a man with long brown hair walking out of a front door, black hair, indigo eyes, love, frustration and hope, despair,   
Fury.  
He jumped in surprise, gasping for air as He clenched his hair in his hands in fear and pain, trying to calm his wrecked mind by focusing on the wall ahead of him, a calm blue shining off of it.  
Blue.   
Lance.  
Memories of a family photo, two pilot lists, a planet shrinking and shrinking and shrinking until it was invisible to the eye, brown hair, blue eyes, love, discouragement and excitement, heartbreak,  
Sentiment.  
This time, He was prepared. He understood. He did not jump. He did not gasp. He released his hair from his slowly relaxing hands and looked back down at his palms, smiling brightly in excitement as He-- as they remembered.  
"We fused-- I fused!" He cried out excitedly in a two-toned voice, getting up and stumbling quickly to the bathroom, looking at his face for the first time in wonder and awe.  
He recognized his facial features. He had light tanned skin like Lance and long hair like Keith, but it was dark brown instead of his usual raven black. He was taller but lanky; wearing two pairs of pants, a black shirt and a blue shirt, and two jackets. He looked absolutely ridiculous, but He was too mesmerized by his eyes.  
He had the galaxy trapped in his irises, mixes of indigo and blue swirling around and sparkling beautifully. The colors danced with each other to their own song.  
"Look at us! This is amazing!" He said, voice evening out into a mix of the two Paladin's voices as He admired himself in the mirror, turning around to get a good view from every angle.  
"All except for the clothes..." He muttered before starting to strip off some layers, leaving him in blue jeans, a black shirt, and Lance's jacket.  
"I'll need to get a new jacket. It's too long for my taste." The Keith-side of him critiqued, but He could care less.  
He walked outside the bathroom and started to pace around, asking himself questions under his breath.  
"What does this make us-- me? What do we do now? What will the others think? What's my name?"  
He stopped and took a deep breath, calming himself,  
"Ok, so what would my name be? Leith? No that sounds stupid. How about Klance? Yeah, that works!" He-- Klance declared, pounding his fist to his palm in his decision.  
He opened his mouth again to speak but was cut off from a knocking on his door. He scrambled to the bathroom and hid behind the door, calling a small "Yes?"  
"Hey Keith," Shiro answered, "Dinner is going to be ready in around an hour; Hunk's making something special that he learned from the locals. Also, have you seen Lance? I went to his room but he wasn't there."  
Klance cleared his throat and put on his best Keith impression.  
"Oh, uh, I don't know where Lance is, maybe go check the hangar. I'll see you at dinner."  
"Keith, are you feeling ok? Your voice sounds kinda weird." Shiro called, and Klance knew he was preparing to come in.  
The fusion ran across the room and blocked the door, keeping it closed.  
"I'm fine!" He growled worryingly, his voice distorting to where it sounded like both Keith and Lance were talking, "I'll see you at dinner."  
Shiro didn't reply, just walked off, leaving Klance to his thoughts.  
The young man looked down at his palms and sighed before pressing a single finger to both crystals and feeling the uncomfortable pull of being ripped apart.  
Keith looked up at Lance on the cold floor, blushing as the kneeling Cuban rubbed his sore head, not realizing he lacked a shirt. Keith looked around and grabbed Lance's shirt before throwing it at him, making Lance sputter in surprise.  
"You should go." Keith stated curtly, hastily pulling on his black pants and gripping his jacket tightly while Lance struggled to pull on his shirt.  
"I'm sorry, what? Why?" Lance looked at Keith like he was nuts. The fusion went fine, neither of them died or something. What did he do wrong?  
"Well, it's almost dinner, a-and this was just a one time thing anyway, right?" Keith explained, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.  
Lance stared blankly at Keith, processing what he said before snapping out of it. It wasn't like he and Keith were friends before-- quite the opposite-- but...  
"Yeah, sure. Whatever. I wouldn't want to fuse with you again anyway." Lance waved the shorter male off, regretting every word.  
Keith's brows furrowed and his eyes were set ablaze with wet anger,  
"Fine then!" He growled and shoved Lance out of his room.  
Lance opened his mouth and turned to the door, not knowing what he was going to say, but the door closed on his face with an echoing snap. Lance closed his mouth and waited a few minutes more before finally turning away and walking toward his room.  
He didn't want to fuse again. There wasn't any reason to fuse again. Besides, Keith and Lance were rivals, nothing else.  
So why did Lance want to run back to Keith so badly?

Dinner could have been worse, Lance guessed. Keith could have told everyone that they had fused and then the entire team would have had to share their awkwardness.  
Actually, keeping the awkward to themselves was torture.  
Fleeting glances to each other while the other wasn't looking, sad looks of maybe pity or regret, and little ticks and fidgets every time something that generally reminded them of fusion came up basically made up that night.  
Lance couldn't think of any flirt or snarky remark to say at the dinner table, and Keith definitely didn't have anything to say, choosing to stay silent in favor of actually engaging in conversation, even with Shiro like usual nights. Lance huffed and looked back to Shiro and Allura who were talking about weird Altean foods with Hunk, which didn't exactly help Lance with feeling any less lonely.  
Lance didn't actually tune into anything being said at the dinner table until Keith stood up abruptly and stalked, presumably, back to his room. Lance set his head upon his hand, talking his fingers against his chin impatiently as the rest of supper dragged on until his restlessness got the best of him.  
"I'm headed to bed. Thanks for dinner Hunk. G'night!" He called before running down the hallway. He barely registered where he was going until he slowed down and started walking, giving him a few moments to think about everything that had happened.  
'Quiznak, what is wrong with me? Why did I think this was a good idea in the first place?' Lance thought to himself, running his hand on the back of his neck in agitation. He kept walking until he started to pass Keith's room, stopping and staring at the door. His fingers twitched and he would have given everything to...  
To what? What exactly pulled him toward Keith? They weren't friends. They fused once. They should hate each other, but Lance wanted to run back into that room and do something-- anything-- that would bring them closer.  
Lance sighed and closed his eyes before walking off.   
It was a lost cause anyway


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Swear to God, this isn't an April Fool's post.

If Lance thought dinner was awkward, he had another thing coming with actually working around Keith.  
The team had been transporting the carts of Fusion Crystals the Balmera had produced. Some of the local Balmerans were helping Shiro and Keith bring the minecarts up to the surface while Lance, Allura, and Hunk set them up inside the ship. Lance was unusually quiet during the entire procedure, deep in thought about what had happened the night before.  
Lance couldn't help but wonder what could have happened if he stayed a little longer. Would he and Keith have fused again? What if they did? Would they have talked about it? How would fusing change their already-messed-up relationship? Lance couldn't keep a single thought down in his head to actually think over, just worrying about all of it as it scrambled around in his mind's eye.  
Lance was knocked out of his stupor when Allura placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.  
"Lance, are you alright?" She asked sincerely.  
Lance gave a wide grin, trying to reassure her, "Yeah, just... Thinking." He said, looking back to the crystals, picking one up and massaging it in his hand lazily.  
"Allura, whats so bad about these things? You act like they're... I don't know, the Galra or something." Lance finally asked, not missing the way Allura flinched.  
The princess sighed and sat on top of a closed cart.  
"These crystals seem harmless, but they can ruin your life... And the lives of others. I don't want to go into details, but Fusion Crystals used to be used to make better technology for the universe to benefit off of. That was all they were meant to be." She trailed off for a minute before coming back to reality, "Then... There was an accident... Since then, Fusion Crystal mines were meant to be closed off and forgotten." Allura finished, not noticing how Lance was now tightly gripping the crystal in his hand.  
The Altean shook herself off and got up, placing both hands on Lance's shoulders with a strained happy expression.  
"Now, I think the team and the Balmerans are in need of a break. Go tell Shiro and Keith, and I'll go tell Pidge and Coran." And with that, Allura turned and walked off.  
Lance sighed and walked off the ship, out into the hot sun above the Balmera. He called out to the others, causing them to pause their work and head back up to the castle.  
Hunk came in behind Lance. Needing some company, Lance trailed behind to talk to his old friend.  
"Hey Hunk, what's up?" He asked.  
"Oh, hey Lance." Hunk said with a small smile, "Nothing really. Just... I was thinking about Shay's Balmera. It's so much... Sadder than this one. I mean, this Balmera has an actual society with jobs, business, shops, homes; all of it. Shay's was so underdeveloped because of what the Galra did." Hunk spoke, kind of forgetting Lance in the process as he continued talking about Shay's people. Soon enough, Hunk walked off without realizing he had left Lance in the background.  
"Good talk bud." He sighed to himself, looking down at his feet as he walked inside the castle and toward his room.  
The door slid open with a mechanical 'clank' and Lance passed through, aiming for his bed so he could just sleep away the day.  
However, the Blue Paladin couldn't seem to catch a break. Lance was left tossing and turning in irritability, not really knowing what he was so anxious about. It could have been the job at hand-- smuggling important gems that could be used for weapons seemed like a stressful thing. He didn't think it was something he ate for breakfast that had just settled wrong in his stomach, the ache seemed too deep for that.  
'Is it Keith?' he thought, only making the ache in his chest grow.  
'Yep, definitely Keith.' he thought again as a hand traced over the middle of his chest. Truth be told, he missed Klance. Despite the awkwardness of their first fusion, it felt right and special. Something between just him and Keith that didn't have to be shared with anyone else. He missed sharing that closeness he had only felt with his family down on Earth. Sure, Hunk and Pidge had been his first friends out of the Voltron team, but now they seemed more distant than ever... and it hurt. It hurt a lot.  
Lance was shaken out of his thoughts from a knock on his door. He begrudgingly got up and answered it only to be greeted by the one person he didn't expect to see so soon.  
"Keith? What are you doing here?" Lance asked, not questioning why Keith was there and pushing his way into his room.  
"Look, I know I said not again but... I think we should fuse again." Keith put bluntly.  
Lance would have been lying if he said his heart hadn't nearly jumped out of his chest in excitement at those simple words, but he kept himself cool.  
Sort of.  
"Wait, what? I don't... I mean, I don't understand. I thought you said... You said last time was the last time." Lance stuttered while Keith's face burned.  
"I know what I said!" Keith barked, "but I was thinking-"  
"That's dangerous."  
"-that we should test out Klance's-- the fusion's strength. If the time comes, we may need to use it against the Galra, so it's best to know exactly what this thing can do." Keith explained, slightly dampening Lance's mood. Lance shouldn't have expected more. Of course Keith would only care about the benefit for the Voltron cause from Klance, not anything else.  
Lance covered his sudden sadness with a lively smile.   
"Yeah, let's do it."

It was late when they decided to meet at the training deck. The rest of the team had rejoiced at a chance to rest their bodies from working almost all day, so there was little to no chance of being caught.  
Lance walked in, Bayard at his side, and saw Keith sitting up against the wall with his gem in his hand, his red Bayard in the other. Lance subconsciously tightened the grip on his own gem while he mentally prepared himself for fusion again.  
"Hey." Keith said, giving off an awkward air but still somehow managing to seem cool while doing it.  
"Hey yourself." Lance said, not as cool.  
"So... Ready to get started?" Keith asked, running a hand through his hair as Lance nodded enthusiastically, tapping his gem and activating it.  
Keith followed his example and reached toward Lance, memorizing the heat forming between them as their bodies melded together.  
Klance opened his eyes to his new world, relishing his wholeness once more. He stood and looked down to see he didn't have two sets of clothes on, but instead had a black shirt, blue jeans, and a jacket that looked like a darker version of Lance's except with a cropped top.  
'Finally, a good jacket.' he thought childishly, holding out his arms to his sides to examine his new outfit.  
Klance was only snapped out of it when the room promptly reminded him of what he was there to do with a quick 'Select training level'.  
"Uh, level one?" Klance called back and the room went silent until an Altean drone rose from the ground and charged at the fusion. Klance ducked and rolled to the side as the robot swung it's sword at his head, turning for another attack. It raised it's arms again and swung, cutting the fusion's arm slightly and making him grit his teeth in pain. Klance held his arm in pain and his eyes widened in terror as the sword came down on him again. He rolled to the side and stood up abruptly, summoning a purple Bayard at his side for the next attack. He didn't have to wait long since the drone turned back to the fusion and made its way toward him. Klance activated his Bayard, the familiar hum and white light of the weapon being formed filling the room until all that was left was a purple bayonet, designed with red hues toward the blade's tip and blue tones toward the butt of the gun's end. Klance wasn't given time to marvel at his weapon when the drone raised his sword in attack, ready to strike before crumpling weakly, eyes dulling as it died.  
Klance stared at the drone, the bayonet's blade suck inside of its stomach and sticking out of the other side. He pulled it out and let the robot fall to the floor before it was removed from the room. Klance breathed heavily at the adrenaline rush he'd just experienced before choking out, "Begin level two."

After almost two hours of nonstop training, Klance rested against the wall on the floor, holding his hands behind his head as he slowed down his breathing.  
"That was awesome." He said breathlessly, smiling giddily despite his exaughstion. He silently wondered what time it was. 'No ones up yet, right?' he thought to himself, standing up and stretching, 'It wont hurt to get me some food goo and a drink.' And with that, Klance shut down the training deck and headed for the kitchen.  
Once there, Klance quietly grabbed a drink pouch and silently activated one of the food goo tubes, pouring himself a bowl and sitting at the counter's edge to eat.  
'And I still haven't been caught. This is going pretty smoothly.' he thought, taking a bite of his goo peacefully only to be shaken out of his stupor with a loud crash. He looked up to see a stunned, pajama-clad Pidge with a spoon in her hand and a dirty bowl at her feet, staring straight at Klance.  
"Oh Quiznak." Klance muttered and jumped over the counter to grab Pidge, who had already started to turn and run for back up.   
Klance wrapped Pidge in his arms and held her off the floor, hissing and wincing in pain as quietly as he could as the smaller paladin bit, scratched, and clawed her way out of his grasp, but to no avail.  
"Let me go!" She screamed, but Klance covered her mouth with a hand.  
"Calm down Pidge! It's me- it's us! Keith and Lance." He tried to explain. Pidge turned her head and glared at him, her words muffled as she continued to squirm.  
"Look, I can prove it! Just... You have to promise you won't scream again." Klance promised, only letting go of Pidge when she gave a small nod.  
The fusion backed up from the green paladin, who crossed her arms and glared at him menacingly. "Well?" She said curtly.  
Klance took a breath in and let it out slowly, touching his gems and letting the feeling of being pulled apart flow through him until all that was left was Keith and Lance.  
Pidge stood slack-jawed, her eyes wide and unseeing as she sat there in shock.  
"Don't scream!" Lance and Keith said in unison, turning to each other in surprise and chuckling for a second. Pidge collected herself and pushed up her glasses, running a hand through her hair stressfully.  
"This is... This is unbelievable! When Coran said fusion between two life forms was possible, I didn't really believe it! I mean, I did, but it's not like I would ever see it in person or something- wait, wait a tick," she looked back at the two boys and pointed at them, eyeing them suspiciously, "how long has this been going on between you two?"  
The two boys in question blushed a bit. Pidge made it sound so... Dirty between the two of them. Like it was some sort of hidden relationship they had.  
'Which it isn't.' Lance thought, pushing away the thought of him and Keith ever being in a relationship.  
"Since yesterday. This is the second time we've done it." Keith answered, making Lance turn to him incredulously.  
"Dude! I thought this was gonna be a secret?" Lance cried.  
Keith rolled his eyes and said, "I mean, there's no point in keeping it from Pidge anymore, she saw us!"  
Lance couldn't find a reason to argue, so he shut his mouth and pouted, crossing his arms across his chest while Keith turned back to Pidge.  
"Pidge, I know this is a lot to ask," Keith started, eyes pleading, "but please, you can't tell anyone about me and Lance."  
Pidge sputtered in shock and looked at the red paladin as if he had just told her to give up inventing for no reason.  
"What? Why? This is a scientific breakthrough and who says this can't help with the fight against the Galra? Or to help find my family? Don't you understand what you're hiding?"  
Keith let her rant and held his hands up in a surrendering motion,  
"I know, but Klance is new. Lance and I still don't exactly know how he works completely." He paused, looked again Lance for a fleeting second, then turned back to Pidge with a new found confidence.  
"All I'm asking for is a little bit of time. You saw how Allura reacts to fusion. It isn't good to go up to her with a half-baked and dangerous plan."  
Pidge looked down in thought, holding her chin in her hand. She looked up and pushed up her glasses, her decision already made.  
"Fine, I won't tell a soul." She promised, but cut off Keith when he tried to thank her, "But, you have to let me run some tests-- just for a couple of days! I can help see just what Klance can do and I want to know how this fusion stuff works. That'll keep me quiet."  
Keith looked at Lance, seeming to only communicate with their eyes until Lance gave a deciding nod.  
"Fine. But not every single night and NEVER during the day, got it?" He said.  
"Got it." Pidge replied. She bent down and picked up her bowl, tossing it and the spoon in the sink and headed out the door, but not before turning and saying, "also, you guys might want to get some sleep. And stay safe." And with that, she was gone.  
The two remaining paladins looked at each other, worry etched into their faces but it was quickly shaken off. Lance was the first to speak.  
"So, I guess this won't just be a two-time thing now, huh?"  
"I guess not."  
Another pause.  
"We should head to bed. Good night, Lance."  
"Yeah, you too."


	4. Chapter Four

The next morning, Lance woke up happy. Tired, but happy nonetheless. Last night had been fun and exciting, even though he and Keith had been caught by Pidge. He felt as if he was on top of the world and could take on a whole Galra fleet. Lance quickly changed into his paladin armor and headed toward the dining room where the rest of the team sat. Coran was whistling in the kitchen as Pidge and Hunk sat together at the table, bent over a piece of machinery that they were arguing over. Allura and Shiro were talking together as usual while Keith watched and spoke when he needed to. Lance's heart skipped a beat when he laid his eyes on the Red Paladin, going over how he smiled and leaned back without a care in the world. Lance wish he could be that way around himself. Carefree and relaxed. The only time Keith seemed anything besides tough and on edge was whenever they were fused.  
Lance pushed away those thoughts as he took a seat next to Keith. It seemed as if all eyes were on him, an echoing silence ringing throughout the room. Keith turned to him and started to smile but covered it up with his usual bored scowl. He didn't say anything as he turned away from Lance and continued his conversation with Shiro and the princess, confusing the rest of their teammates but acting as if everything was normal.  
Lance couldn't help but feel heartbroken, but he didn't let it show.  
'If Keith randomly started acting nice to me, the others would think something was up.' he told himself.  
At that moment, Coran walked out of the kitchen with two plates of food goo in his hands, pausing when he saw that Lance and Keith were actually sitting by eachother. He broke his shocked expression with a cheerful smile, walking forward and setting down a plate for Lance and himself.  
"It's good to know you two are finally getting along." Coran said happily, not noticing Lance's sheepish smile.  
Lance ate quickly, sometimes butting into the other's conversations when he felt the need for a joke. He was finishing off a spoonful of food goo when Allura stood up and clapped her hands together, signaling everyone to look up at her.  
"Now that we're all finished, I am going to split you all into teams again so we can finish the job." Allura declared, "By the rate we are going, we should be done in less than three more days."  
Lance swore he heard some muffled groans from Pidge, but didn't say anything. If Allura heard them, she didn't say anything because she started splitting up everyone into teams.  
"Coran and I are going to talk with Prox about strategy's for us to keep the Galra out of the way. We can't risk an attack with such dangerous equipment. Shiro, I would like for you to join us for a part of the meeting." She paused and looked around the table thoughtfully before continuing, "Once you are done, I want you to join Pidge while she scouts the area for any loose crystals that might have emerged around the mines. We can't leave any behind.  
"Hunk, I'm sorry, but you're by yourself with setting the carts safely into the ship. You can ask some local Balmerans if they can sacrifice some of their time to help.  
"Keith and Lance, I need you to both down in the mines. The cave systems are dangerous and I will not ask Prox to send anymore Balmerans down there after yesterday's accident."  
"What happened yesterday?" Lance asked, concerned but, overall, just curious.  
"Two Balmeran citizens were trapped behind some loose rocks and dirt that fell from overhead. Only one was injured but they both suffered some shock from the ordeal." Allura explained before Shiro took over.  
"The Balmerans are peaceful and don't keep weapons like we do to counter problems like that. We won't ask Prox to risk the health of his people for us, but we need you two to stay safe too," he gave a pointed glare at the two of them, "so no horseplay."  
Keith nodded solemnly while Lance gave a mock salute, earning an eyeroll from Shiro.  
"Now that that's settled, I am going to go and meet Prox." Allura declared, heading for the door, calling out, "Shiro, Coran, please join me" on her way out.  
Lance stood up and slapped Keith's back playfully. "C'mon samurai, let's go get this over with quickly."

They did not get it over with quickly. In fact, it felt like an eternity for Lance. Swinging the pickaxe up and down, up and down, up and down, over and over and over again in a cramped cave with nothing but lanterns and Keith to keep him company was finally tiring him out. Lance was used to heavy lifting, (his rifle wasn't exactly light as a feather) but this was ridiculous. Everytime he thought he has hit rock bottom, there seemed to be another crystal appearing right behind the last one.  
'Maybe this is the Balmera playing a sick joke on me.' he thought, groaning when another crystal appeared.  
'An incredibly sadistic sick joke.'  
Lance brought down his pick once again, missing his target and accidently spraying dirt to the side of him.  
Right into Keith's face.  
His partner twisted his face into a grimace, spitting dirt and rocks out of his mouth and brushing them out of his hair.  
"Lance!" He growled, clenching his fists, "Watch where you're hitting that thing! You never pay attention."  
Lance bristled at his tone and glared,  
"I never pay attention? Well, you're the impulsive one! Let's take a moment to remember the time you drove us off a cliff with Shiro out cold!"  
"At least I don't waste my time flirting with everything that has a pulse! You never use your time for anything important except when you're shooting," Keith grabbed some dirt from the wall and threw it in Lance's face, "and I'm still the better shot."  
Lance snarled and threw some dirt back at Keith, landing a globful in his mouth.  
Keith spit it at Lance's feet and summoned his Bayard. He formed his sword and slashed it through the wall, creating a dust cloud to blind the Blue Paladin. Unfortunately, that's not all it did. In the midst of Keith's triumphant laughter, the crack spread up the wall, causing the cave to shake and groan until both paladins felt dirt fall on them.  
They looked up and saw the cracks upon the ceiling and threatening to crash. They ran forward blindly only for a moundful of Balmeran soil to collapse on them, blocking their exit.  
"Great, good job Keith!" Lance groaned, coughing up dust, "Now how are we gonna-"  
"LANCE!" Keith screamed in the dark, painfilled and scared.  
Lance looked around and didn't see his teammate. He grabbed the only lantern left with them and used the light to find him, only to see Keith on the ground with his leg trapped beneath two tons of dirt.  
"Oh, Quiznak, no no no, Keith!" Lance panicked while Keith desperately tried to tug his leg free but to no avail.   
Lance dropped the lantern to the ground hastily and grabbed his pick axe, swinging it down on the dirt crushing Keith, hoping that would loosen it up enough for Keith the break free.  
"Lance stop! You'll bring it down again!" Keith ordered frantically, spitting out dirt. Lance held himself still but was too terrified to talk. He should have seen this coming. He shouldn't have antagonized Keith with the dirt-throwing. He should have warned Keith, at least, that the wall might collapse. He was so stupid! Why didn't he think this through? Now Keith was-  
"Lance, snap out of it! Whatever you're thinking, stop it." Keith demanded, eyes not angry but almost begging in the lamp light. "I need you to stay focused. Don't worry about what happened, stay in the now; understand?"   
Lance took a shaky breath and swallowed down a throatful of anxiety before nodding his head shakily.  
"Good." Keith said with a pained smile, turning back to pull at his leg again but it wasn't any looser.  
"Ok, Lance, take my arms and pull as hard as you can- and what ever I do, do not stop." He ordered, and Lance gave a nod of understanding.  
The Cuban boy grabbed Keith's arms, took a deep breath in, and pulled as hard as he could. He tried to block out Keith's bloodcurdling screams as all of that weight shifted on his leg. He refused to look as his teammate's face contorted in pain until the two of them fell back.  
Keith was out. Keith was ok.  
But they were still stuck.  
Keith panted heavily, unable to move his leg. Lance bent down and reached to touch it, but Keith jerked back, resulting in a pained cry.  
"Keith, I have to see how bad it is," Lance explained, scooting forward and reaching out again, "I'll be gentle, I promise."  
Keith relaxed the slightest bit and gave Lance a nod, looking away and biting the inside of his cheek to distract him.  
Lance pulled off Keith's armored boot and took a sharp rick to tear off the plates on his leg and tear open the skintight suit beneath. Lance winced at the sight.  
While the armor had protected him somewhat, Keith's ankle was still horribly bruised and twisted out of shape. It was a miracle that Lance could pull off the boot with it's condition. Here wasn't any blood and the leg didn't seem shattered, but there was definitely swelling and the joint was popped out of place.  
"How- How bad is it?" Keith asked through labored breaths, still refusing to look at the damage.  
"Honestly, it's kinda bad," Lance admitted, "Nothing looks fractures but you're foot his popped out of place. I'll... I'll need to pop it into place."  
Keith groaned with an underlying whimper but didn't argue. "Get it over with."  
"On three"  
Keith nodded.  
"One."  
"Two."  
There was no three.  
Lance sharply set the foot back into place without hesitation. Keith let out a final scream before dying it down to his usual labored breaths.  
"Thanks."  
"Don't mention it." Lance replied with an apologetic smile, "now let's see if we can contact anyone from down here."  
Lance grabbed his helmet from the ground and put it on, only getting static before some voices started becoming recognizable.  
"L...nc... La...c... Wh..t happ...d?" A broken version of Pidge's voice asked through the comm.  
"Pidge! Keith and I are trapped in the mines!" He yelled, getting as close to his mic as possible, "Send help!"  
"Mi...n... Tr...p...d... G...t." was all that cane out before the line went dead.  
Lance cursed under his breath and looked back to Keith who had taken his sword and chopped off a stalagmite, wrapping it with his ripped up suit around his leg to use as a splint.  
"There," he said with a sigh, "It's not pretty, but it'll work."  
"I got a hold of Pidge," Lance replied, sitting down next to Keith, "she should get here soon."  
Keith only nodded and leaned back on his hands, throwing his head and taking in a breath. "Thanks, really; I didn't know you knew how to do all of that."  
Lance chuckled, "Well if you stayed in the Garrison long enough, we had a class on advanced first aid."   
Keith huffed and nudged Lance's shoulder playfully, "You did good. You got it together when I needed you."  
"Yeah, after almost panicking." Lance countered, scowling at his idiocy.  
"You didn't know what was happening," Keith replied sympathetically, "it was stressful and you still managed to pull me out and patch me up. If you hadn't done what you did, I'd still be trapped under a hundred pounds of dirt."  
Lance blushed at his compliment and looked down, "Thanks." He murmured, taking a risk and looking back at Keith to see both of them were face to face.  
Did Keith seem closer? Keith looked closer. He seemed to be leaning forward ever so slowly until there was a sudden noise from the other side.   
The dirt started to glow and shift to the walls and standing on the other side was Pidge, Allura, Shiro, and two Balmerans keeping the dirt away.  
"Come on," Shiro said, "let's get out of here quickly.  
Lance nodded and picked up Keith in his arms, grunting under the weight but carrying him outside and into the castle with no complaints.

After an incredibly long wait for Keith to get out of the healing pod and then an incredibly long lecture, Lance was pretty sure he was done with anything incredibly long or stressful. He laid down on his bed with a flop, barely caring about the dirt he got on his sheets as he tried to relax and forget about what had happened between he and Keith in those last few moments in the mine.   
Keith had seemed like he was going to kiss him, but that was ridiculous. Keith was his archenemy, he didn't like Lance. It was just Lance thinking stupid again.  
Lance jumped up when there was a knock on his door.  
"Come in."  
The door slid open and Keith stood there, leg perfectly healed and clean of all signs of injury.  
"Hey." Keith said.  
"Hey," Lance replied, pointing to Keith's leg, "looks a lot better. You feeling all right?"  
Keith nodded and walked in.  
"Thanks again, for everything."  
"Gosh, what's up with you and all of this thanks? Who are you and what have you done with Keith?" Lance laughed, pulling a chuckle from the Red Paladin.  
"Whatever, I was just trying to be nice." Keith looked over to Lance's game system, "Isn't that the thing you got at the space mall?"  
"Oh, yeah," Lance picked up a controller and rolled it around in his hands, "Pidge and Hunk set it up so it works." He held up another controller toward Keith.  
"Wanna play?"  
Keith shrugged and sat down by Lance, picking up the controller.  
They played for hours on end, talked for hours on end, and just relaxed for as long as they could before falling asleep without realizing it.  
Lance's only thought was 'I finally got him to relax around me.'


	5. Chapter Five

Keith never felt so warm since his time at the Garrison. He cuddled into the heated embrace that reminded him of when he and Shiro would bunk together during their time before Shiro's abduction, but differently. He and Shiro had always had a familial relationship and that's what those late night hugs always felt like, but this was more... Personal. Nothing was closer than the family bond he and Shiro had, but this still felt close in ways he couldn't feel with the black Paladin.  
He reluctantly cracked open his eyes to find himself in someone else's room, wrapped around in someone else's arms. For a second, he panicked, then he remembered what had happened.  
'I'm with Lance,' the thought to himself, calming down, 'I'm fine.'  
He rolled onto his back, waking Lance up in the process. The other boy blinked for a second, as if not realizing what was happening, and then jolting in surprise.  
"Keith?" Lance tried to tone down his scream, " I thought you... Would have left by now." He sounded confused but not exactly displeased.  
Keith shook away those thoughts with a blush and crossed his arms. "I just fell asleep." He stood up and stretched, "What time is it?"  
Lance picked up his orange screen and paled. "Holy Crow. Allura is going to kill us."  
Keith looked over his shoulder at his screen and immediately started planning his funeral. "We should go."  
"You think?"

To say Allura was angry would have been an understatement. The Altean princess was absolutely fuming, glaring at Keith and Lance as if they had destroyed one of her prized possessions.  
"And what exactly kept the two of you for so long?" She snapped, making the two paladins shrink in their spots.  
"We- uh... Slept in..." Lance admitted, cowering in fear as the princess approached him.  
"You mean to tell me," she growled under her breath, "that you missed the team briefing for a few more dobashes of sleep?"  
Lance barely nodded and when Allura looked as if she was about to smack him Keith stepped in front of him, sheilding him from her gaze.  
"It was my fault. I stayed in his room last night and kept him up." He told her, making Allura and Lance gape. Keith had never once protected Lance like that, but hey, Lance wasn't complaining.  
Allura straightened up and looked Keith in the eye, "I see. I don't know what has sparked this new behavior Keith; you are usually so punctual."  
Keith barely flinched and Allura sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.  
"I can't punish the two of you when you are supposed to work- and because of yesterday's fiasco, you obviously can't work seriously together, so you will be seperated until tomorrow when we depart from the Balmera. Keith, you will be stationed with me, while Lance is stationed with Shiro. We will see if your behavior by the end of the day improves."  
Keith and Lance looked at eachother with pitiful eyes but nodded back at the princess in understanding.  
Keith didn't know what it was, but hearing that his punishment was to be seperated from Lance seemed awful. Almost unbearable. He didn't understand what this pull was to Lance, or where it came from, but he liked it if he was being honest with himself.  
Lance made him more carefree and less... Keith-like. No, not less Keith-like. When he was on his own, he was rebellious and reckless; willing to try new things and take a jump into the deep end. Lance made him feel like how he was when Shiro wasn't there. Keith loved Shiro, of course, but he always had a need to please Shiro. If his role model had never been abducted, Keith would have stayed in the Garrison without question despite hating it. He never would have tried to find the mysterious energy the Blue Lion gave off in the desert or ever thought about performing a dangerous rescue mission solo.   
Lance made him feel all of these things. Like he could be the hero of his story and do things he never thought he could do under Shiro's shadow.  
And it was terrifying.  
And he loved it.  
And now, Keith felt like he was being torn. He knew this behavior was obsessive, but he could care less. He genuinely liked Lance, despite this strange obsession he developed.  
However, Keith made no move to argue with the princess, knowing that would only bring more trouble. He dutifully followed her out of the ship while Lance went off to find Shiro.

"I still can't understand how you couldn't get up this morning, Keith," Allura chastised, "you have never been late before."  
Keith barely paid attention as he picked up every single crystal he found. He and Allura were tasked with gathering the loose crystals that had made their way out of the main cave, as a precaution.  
"Keith, are you listening?" Allura asked, angry but also concerned.  
"Yes, princess, I heard." Keith drawled.  
"What is going on with you? Is it Lance that has been effecting your behavior? You've been spending more and more of your time with him, and I'm afraid his bad behaviors are rubbing off on you."  
Keith snapped his head around, glaring at Allura, "Stop thinking it's all Lance's fault! Not everything he does is bad. Maybe I've just been having a bad week, you never know."  
Allura choked on words, surprised at Keith's hostility, but she gathered herself.  
"I'm not- I didn't mean- that's not what I meant." She sputtered, "I only meant that I didn't know if something was bothering both you and Lance that caused this behavior. Even Lance is slacking," she placed a gentle hand on Keith's shoulder, "I just want to make sure the two of you are ok."  
Keith's throat tightened. He let his anger get the best of him. He shook his head and looked back at Allura, eyes calmer,  
"Everything is fine, don't worry. It won't happen again." Keith muttered, turning to get back to work.  
"See that I'd doesn't Keith." Allura stated, getting back to work as well.  
It was at that moment that Coran made an appearance, running toward the two of them.  
"Princess," he coughed, out of breath, "Prox wishes to speak to you. He hopes now would be a good time?"  
Allura smiled and nodded, "I'm on my way. Please stay here with Keith until I get back."  
"Why do I need a babysitter?" Keith said, indignantly.  
"Because you are still being punished," Allura pointed out with a joking glare, "Coran, please help Keith." And with that, she was gone.  
Coran shrugged and started picking up crystal after crystal alkng side Keith,   
"You know, she doesn't mean to be harsh," he said, "just fair. You and Lance were pretty late this morning."  
Keith kept quiet and kept his eyes on the ground.  
"You two weren't, perhaps, you know-"  
"Coran, gah- no! Me and Lance wouldn't... No!" Keith snapped, blush crawling up his neck.  
Coran grinned, eyes crinkling, "If you say so, but if you were planning on-"  
"No, me and Lance wouldn't do something like that. We just stayed up too late playing video games, that's it."  
"Hmmph, well alright then." Coran chuckled.  
Everything was silent between the two of them.  
"Lance didn't... Say anything to you, right? That we were... Like that."   
Coran looked to an embarrassed Keith with surprise.  
"Well no, I was just assuming. On Altea, if you had a special partner, you allow them into your bedroom. Is that not common on Earth?"  
Keith's blush grew, "No, humans do things like that too, we just... We don't normally do those things with people of the same sex."  
"Why not?" Coran was confused, "same sex couples were not uncommon on Altea."  
"Well, Earth is a little different."  
"So you do not like Lance?" Coran asked,  
"No, that's not what I meant! I like Lance! A lot..." Keith looked down, "but it's not... I don't know. Can we get off this topic?"  
Coran nodded, humor glinting in his eyes, "Of course, what else would you like to discuss?"  
"Anything."  
Coran picked up a crystal and showed it to Keith, "Well, I might as well tell you about these crystals." And then he started to blabber on about what properties these crystals held, examples of what they fused; and honestly, Keith could care less.  
That was until Coran said something about "obsessive tendencies".  
"Wait what? Go back, what was that about obsessions?" Keith asked.  
Coran stopped started again,  
"Well, when Balmerans and Alteans were experimenting with the crystals, we came upon obsessive behavior from some living creatures."  
"What living creatures?"  
"Well, mainly animals. We would fuse two beasts together and then seperated them, only for the two of them to grow attached to eachother- metaphorically, of course." Coran explained and Keith's hears started turning.  
"Did any... Romantic feelings grow?" He finally asked.  
"Well it took longer for romantic feelings to grow. Most animals only growed in their platonic or familial relationship. To grow romantic feelings, we would have had to fuse them over and over and over again, and we honestly didn't have the time or patience for that experiment."  
Keith silently let out a sigh of relief. What he was feeling wasn't some weird fusion-induced obsession.  
'Oh Quiznak,' he thought, 'I'm not obsessed. This... This is an actual thing.'  
Coran continued to go on about the crystals but Keith dropped the crystals in his hands and started running back to the ship.  
"Where are you going?" Coran called,  
"I just have to go!" Keith yelled and sprinted to the caves.

Keith was unbelievably thankful when he saw Lance alone in the caves, Shiro no where in sight.  
"Lance!" Keith called, getting the blue paladins attention, "where's Shiro?"  
"Keith? What are you doing here? Shiro left with Allura."  
"Great, come on." Keith grabbed a lantern, and dragged Lance farther down the cave.  
"What's going on? Keith, what are-"  
"I just wanted to talk, ok?"   
Lance shut up and nodded, leaning against the wall, "this couldn't wait until lunch because?"  
"Because I couldn't stand staying with Coran and listening to him drone on about the crystals."  
Lance shrugged and said "Understandable. Anything interesting about the crystals?"  
Keith almost told him about the onbessive behavior they create- almost- but didn't. He didn't want to scare off Lance from what they had. He himself had just gotten over a mini heart attack from the news that he could've been infatuated with Lance in that way.  
"No, just boring stuff."   
"So, what was the real reason you dragged me down here?" Lance asked playfully,  
"If Shiro found us, Allura would have had a cow." Keith admitted with a chuckle that grew into a laugh when Lance started to giggle hilariously.  
"She would be so mad!" Lance placed one hand against the wall to keep himself balanced and placed another on Keith's shoulder, "she would've had a Kaltenecker!" His laughter was infections and soon Keith had to hold onto the wall for stability, unknowingly touching a fusion crystal embedded there.  
The two of them barely noticed their bodies merging until only Klance was left. He gasped and looked down at himself, seeing the crystals were still embedded in his hands.  
"Oh boy." His chuckles died down and he looked around, packing the cave floor.  
'I really don't want to unfuse, but why am I worried about this? What's worrying me?' be asked himself, confused as to why a part of him was concerned. Keith and Lance usually enjoyed fusing.  
Klance tried to shake it off, but this feeling of uncertainty was to great, physiy pulling him apart until Keith and Lance were left.  
"Wh-what was that?" Lance asked, looking at the untouched gem in his palm, "We didn't touch these to unfuse! That's not possible, that- Keith?"  
Keith was currently holding onto his gem tightly, looking scared. He didn't mean to fuse, and he didn't know if he truly meant to unfuse. Coran's words about relationships and obsessions had shaken him to his core.  
"Keith, what's wrong? Talk to me." Lance soothed, crouching down to be eye level with his partner.  
"I- how did we do that?" He finally asked.  
"It must've been when we weren't synced up or something. We usually have the same idea when we fuse, but... What was wrong? Did you not like it?"  
Keith shook his head frantically, "Of course! No, that's not it, it was just... I must've been tired or something and it just... Shocked me, I guess. But hey, at least we have something for Pidge to theorize with, huh?"  
Lance's brows furrowed but he smiled, "Yeah sure, but you should probably head back before Allura and Shiro get done."  
"Yeah, probably." Keith replied, halfheartedly.  
The two of them made their way up to the mouth of the cave only to see and incredibly angry princess and an equally angry pilot.  
"I thought," Allura snarled, "you two were supposed to work selerately."  
"Quiznak." Keith and Lance said simultaneously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay. Last week was kind of crazy and I didn't have enough time to post another chapter. Thanks for waiting, and I hope you enjoyed! See you next Sunday.


	6. Chapter Six

Keith felt like an idiot. An unbelievable idiot. He ran to Lance like a lovesick puppy, panicked after fusing, and now he was stuck cleaning the ship's kitchen for the next three days. He groaned as the mopped, letting it drop to the floor and leaned against the wall.  
He didn't understand what came over him. The thought that he could have been obsessed just because of a stupid crystal scares him out of his mind, but knowing that it couldn't have been from the shards made him want to go to Lance; to know what he was feeling was ok. And then fusing right after that rollercoaster of emotions was the last straw, forcing the two of them to unfuse.  
He still wanted to fuse, of course, just... Right after all of those emotions hitting him at once? No way.  
"Uh Keith? You ok?" A familiar voice asked.  
Keith held back a shriek of surprise, whipping around to see Hunk in the doorway.  
"Oh, Hunk, hey- yeah, I'm fine." Keith replied, picking up his mop and starting on the floor again.  
"You sure? You looked kinda like Allura when she gets annoyed with us." The yellow paladin pressed, stepping around the pools of water to the cabinets.  
"I'm fine." Keith finalized, his tone gruff and warning Hunk not to push it.  
"Ok ok... So why is Allura mad at you? I asked Lance but he wouldn't talk to me. Kinda weird of him, actually."  
Keith furrowed his brow, wondering why Lance wouldn't talk to his best friend of all people.  
'Maybe he was afraid of spilling something about Klance...' Keith thought.  
"Um nothing, just something stupid." Keith replied curtly.  
"Really? C'mon, you can tell me." Hunk said with a smile, making himself a bowl of food goo.  
Keith took in a breath and let it out, relaxing his nerves but biting his lip in contemplation. Something about Hunk made things easier to talk about, especially easier than with Coran. And Hunk knew Lance better than anyone, so maybe Keith could ask him one thing...  
"Um Hunk, uh... What's the stupidest thing you would do for Shay?" Keith finally asked, keeping his head down.  
Hunk looked at him, confused, but thought about it, "Uh I don't know... There was one time that I tried comming her but then I remembered that her people don't have comms, so that was pretty stupid. Then there was another time-"  
"Not like that, I mean..." Keith paused and looked at Hunk in the eye, "If you and Shay had some sort of... Thing going on between you and it was probably the most dangerous, stupidest things you could possibly do, would you still do it for her?"  
Hunk gave him a blank stare. "I'm sorry, you lost me. What does this have to do with Allura being angry?"  
"Nothing, forget it." Keith huffed, going back to mopping.  
Hunk have him one last look of pity before leaving the kitchen with his bowl of food goo.  
Keith went back to working until the door 'whooshed' open again, Pidge flying from the doorway and looking at Keith with wild eyes.  
"Why didn't you tell me you could unfuse without the crystals?" She yelled but Keith covered her mouth with his hand to keep her from yelling anything else.  
"Keep it down! You want everyone to know about me and Lance?" He hissed. Pidge moved his hand and glared up at him,  
"First of all: rude. Second of all: you two were supposed to tell me when new things happened so I could test my theories." She huffed.  
"Well it's not like I could go anywhere, Allura's got me and Lance working."  
"Already covered it. I told Allura you two were gonna help me in the lab for a while so you guys get to come with me." Pidge said with a smile before dragging Keith with her to the lab.

Lance tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for Keith and Pidge to arrive. He was thankful for his quick escape from cleaning all of the pods in the castle. He groaned out exasperatedly when Pidge and Keith finally entered the lab.  
"Finally, you guys were taking forever!" Lance groaned but with a smile.  
Keith let a small smile show but kept his mouth firm.  
"Whatever, just do what you guys do." Pidge rolled her eyes, tossing each of the boys a crystal.  
"Uh, where did you get these?" Lance asked.  
Pidge smirked, "I may have snagged a couple while I was walking by the mines. I was only making sure we didn't have any stragglers."  
The boys chuckled and walked toward eachother, closer and closer still. Lance could feel Keith's breath on his face, shaky and hot.  
"You ok?" He asked under his breath.   
Keith gave a short nod, "Yeah, just nervous. Feels different doing it in front of someone."  
Lance chuckled, "we'll be fine. Just like normal, 'kay?"  
"Just like normal."  
They grasped hands and let their light engulf them until Klance stood in the middle of the room, Pidge gaping at him.  
"Wow... That was... That was something else." She murmured, quickly scribbling down notes with a stylus on her orange screen.  
Klance smiled sheepishly, feeling as though there were ants in his skin.  
'Theres nothing to be nervous about, just breath.' he told himself, taking deep breaths in and out.  
"Ok, since you don't have your armor on, can you describe your Bayards? Bayard? Is there only one or are there still two?" Pidge asked, stylus at the ready.  
"Um, it's one purple bayonet." He explained,  
"So your weapon and armor change to match up with the two of you... Interesting..." Pidge muttered to herself, writing down everything she could.  
"Uh, no one can look in that right?" Klance asked,  
"Oh no, I have so many passwords and firewalls and a bunch of other stuff that no one can breach. Trust me, your secrets are safe with me." Pidge assured him, moving around to get a good look at Klance from every side.  
"You're definitely taller than Keith, around the same size as Lance. Kinda lanky but some definition..." She moved around to his face, holding a flashlight to his eyes, "Wow, you're eyes are amazing. They mix together beautifully." She told him before the fusion could pull away from the blinding light.  
"A little warning next time!" He snapped, rubbing his eyes.  
"Sorry, sorry!" Pidge apologized quickly, holding her hands up in surrender. She took a step back and pressed some buttons on her screen before holding it so the camera lense faced them, the red light blinking.  
"Ok, I want you two- Lance and Keith- to think of different things. Argue with eachother in there, but don't touch your gems."  
Klance scoffed, "It doesn't work like that. Look, whatever happened last time was some weird accident. And Lance and Keith aren't, like, controlling just specific parts of me, it's just me." He tried to explain but this wasn't something with a simple explanation. Sure, Keith and Lance were sorta in control, but it was more like their two personalities were mixing together and deciding on each and every decision. The two paladins could feel and hear and see and sense everything Klance could, but it was... Unexplainable.  
"Weird. But try at least." Pidge demanded again, keeping the camera on Klance.  
Klance took an irritated breath in and tried to split his mind in two, one half for Keith and the other for Lance.

Everything was black. Not black, but a very deep purple.  
A flash of blue.  
'So, while I am in here, what was that about earlier? I looked like I'd seen a ghost after I fused'  
A flash of red   
'That was nothing, don't worry about it. I'm fine.'  
A flash of blue.  
'No I'm not! I looked so scared when I looked at me. Was it something I did? Did I scare me?'  
Red.  
'No of course not! Just something Coran had told me, that's all. It was nothing I did.'  
Blue   
'Then what did Coran tell me? Please, I don't want me to be scared of me... Of this. Of what I am. Please, tell me.'  
Red. Bright, bright red.  
'I don't want to tell me! It was nothing, let it go.'  
Blue, a dark and thundering shade of blue.  
'This isn't a joke, I need to know! I don't want to tear me apart.'  
A light, almost pitiful, flash of red.  
'I don't want to talk about it, it's stupid.'  
Blue.  
"Tell me, please!"  
Red, back to its full color, almost blinding.  
"I said, I don't want me to know!"  
And everything went black.

Keith groaned, rubbing his sore head. He barely remembered his and Lance's violent unfusing, the pain lacing through every memory.  
Lance sat up with a hiss, rubbing his back.  
"What happened? What did you two just do?" Pidge asked, making Keith's headache worse. Before he could tell Pidge to shut it, Lance stood up and started to push Pidge out of the lab.  
"Keith and I have to talk." He told her and locked the door behind her, turning to face Keith, who now looked up at him with a small glint of fear in his eyes.  
"What was that about? I thought when we were Klance we were in sync? Why are you keeping secrets now?" Lance asked, his anger breaking into concern.  
Keith sat up and agaisnt the wall, "I just... I didn't want what Coran talked about to change how you felt about our fusion."  
"Too late for that!" Lance laughed but it was strained, "I'm worried about us. Maybe we should st-"  
"Don't say stop. I don't want to stop this."   
Lance looked down at him with surprise, blush crawling up his neck. He sat down next to his partner agaisnt the wall, his fingers oh-so close to Keith's as they tapped frantically.  
"Look, Coran said... He said the fusion crystals had... Obsessive side effects. Apparently if you fuse too much, you can develop obsessions." Keith explained, the heaviness in his chest only easing a bit.  
"Oh. And you think that's what's happened with us?" Lance asked worriedly.  
"No no no, Coran said it would have had to happened a lot more that what we do, it couldn't have happened." Keith replied, looking Lance in his beautiful blue eyes, barely noticing when he took Lance's hand in his own. "It just shook me up and I wanted to see you and I wanted to fuse but when it actually happened I was afraid all I was feeling was obsession and not-" he caught himself.  
Lance's blush was finally reaching his ears, and Keith could tell that he was just as red. The two paladins looked down to see their entwined hands, looking back up at eachother. Their faces were so close, breaths intermingling with eachother. Keith knew if he leaned in just a little closer, he could-  
"How could you lock me out if my own lab!" Pidge screamed, the door skidding open.  
Keith and Lance pulled away from eachother, Keith looking down at the floor while Lance coughed awkwardly into his hand.  
"Uh," Pidge pointed at the two of them, "did I miss something?"  
"No, you're fine. I should, uh- I should probably go back to cleaning the kitchen." Keith muttered, standing up and heading out the door.  
"Uh yeah, me too- I mean, cleaning the pods." Lance said quickly, following Keith's example and leaving the lab before Pidge could ask anymore questions about what had- and hadn't- happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry again for the late update. I didn't mean for it to take so long, but last week was kinda nuts and I didn't have enough time to update. ANYWAY I'm back and I'm gonna get Chapter Seven up next Sunday. See ya!


	7. Chapter Seven

Lance tried to put what happened between him and Keith behind him.  
Tried.  
'Holy Crow, he held my hand. He straight up held my hand.' he thought as he tried to keep his thoughts on what Allura was saying that morning.  
'What could this mean? Should I just go ahead and tell him? I don't think this is an obsession, is this an obsession?'  
"Lance, could you please pay smtion?" Allura asked snappishly.  
"Right, yeah, of course, princess." Lance shot up at attention, back straight A's a board.  
Allura rolled her eyes and continued,  
"As I was saying, this is the last day we will be staying on the Balmera. Tomorrow morning, we set off for the Olkari. We'll do one more scope of the area before we leave so no crystals are left behind, understand?"   
Everyone nodded and Coran sighed in relief.  
"Thank Quiznak we can put all of this behind us."  
"Yes, I too want to get this over with," Allura agreed with a weary smile then turned to the paladins, "Now, I want Shiro, Hunk, and myself to work in the mines. It has already been decided the mines are too dangerous for just two paladins-" Lance ignored the glare pointed at him and Keith, "-And I want my strongest paladins on the job."  
"Princess, why risk yourself?" Coran asked worriedly,  
"I'm the only one here who can communicate through the Balmera if something goes wrong. I need to be down there if something happens." She explained. She turned to Keith, Pidge, and Lance,  
"Coran is going to be dealing with the final meetings we have with Prox in my place, so you three are going to have to be together. You all will be in charge of packing the carts inside."   
"Sounds good to me," Pidge said excitedly, an almost maniacal look in her eye, "c'mon boys."  
She practically pulled Keith and Lance out of their seats and to the cargo area.  
The boys gave each other a nervous look as they followed their teammate to whatever she had planned for them.

"So, does this have something to do with Klance or are you just excited about organizing carts?" Lance asked, eyebrow cocked.  
"What do you think?" Pidge deadpanned, sitting up on a cart. "We have a while before the Balmerans show up with another cart, so I want to actually test you physically. Strength-wise and all that." She explained.  
Keith and Lance looked at eachother and picked up their crystals with a smile,  
"Ready?" Lance asked.  
"Ready."  
They took eachother's hand and let the warm whiteness surround them, leaving Klance standing in front of an excited Pidge.  
"I don't think I'll ever get used to that." She squealed and kicked a cart, "Ok, this thing is roughly 150 pounds without the gravity generators on under it. It would normally take one person a good amount of energy to push it to the other side of the room. Let's see if you can do it with half the amount of energy of a normal person."  
Klance nodded and rubbed his hands together, taking a deep breath and began to push the cart. There was definitely weight to it, but it was easier than if it was just Lance or Keith pushing it.   
"Ok, so definite improvement..." Pidge muttered to herself, "now try pushing two carts at the same time."  
"Got it." Klance said, grabbing another cart and pushing them at the same time. He could move them only a few feet before he stopped, stretching his already sore arms. "How come we can't turn on the zero-gravity engines on this thing? Won't that make it easier?"  
"The point is to see how strong you are." Pidge deadpanned but stood rigid when the familiar sound of the castle doors sliding open rang through the room.  
"Quick, unfuse!" She warned.  
Klance looked at his hands and back at Pidge, "What if I don't want to? What if the rest of the team is fine with this?"  
"And if they're not? You'll be split up for good!"  
Klance shuddered at the thought but didn't- almost couldn't- unfuse. His hands refused to work for him. Pidge groaned, "Fine, go hide, I'll make an excuse."  
Klance nodded know thanks and ran behind a couple of carts, keeping himself shielded from anyone's view.  
Hunk walked in, looking around before smiling at Pidge. "Hey Pidge, where's Keith and Lance?" He asked.  
"Oh, uh, they went to the... The bathroom." She replied, sweat beading at the top of her head.  
"Together? Sounds a little weird." Hunk pressed, stepping closer to where Klance was hiding but still not seeing him.  
"Uh, they were... Arguing?"  
Hunk furrowed his brow and shrugged, "yeah that sounds like them." He finally decided, leaning against a cart.  
"So, aren't you supposed to be helping Shiro and Allura in the mines?" Pidge asked as Klance tried to move farther away from Hunk.  
"Nah, Prox needed to talk to Allura face-to-face instead of Coran. They should get done soon, but I thought hanging out here would pass the times quicker. It is cool if I chill here, right?" He asked, a little worried he was trespassing.  
"Sure yeah, that's fine, everything's fine." Pidge quickly answered, glancing over in Klance's direction, the fusion trying to quietly get to the door.  
"Uh Pidge? Is there a bug or something?" Hunk asked, looking over his shoulder.  
"No! No, no bug, just um... Have you ever really looked at these walls?"  
"Um... Yeah... We live here."  
"I mean really look, like at the small patterns or whatever engraved."  
"Pidge, what are you hiding?" Hunk finally asked, unamused.  
"What? Hiding? Pssh, nothing!" Pidge answered, waving him off like he was nuts.  
Hunk raised a brow and turned around, moving toward the carts and directly where Klance was, "So why were you looking over here?"  
"Hunk don't! It's fine, I'm not hiding anything!" Pidge replied, pulling Hunk away from the carts before he could see the fusion hiding among them.  
At that moment, the three humans in the room could hear Allura calling for Hunk, barely saving Klance by the skin of his nose.  
"Fine, I'm going, but I'll figure it out sooner or later." Hunk said, walking out of the cargo area.  
Pidge breathed a sigh of relief and Klance stood up, his pounding heart nearly bursting out of his chest. Pidge turned and looked at him angrily, pointing a finger at him accusingly.  
"What was that? What did you mean you couldn't unfuse?" She hissed.  
Klance held his ground but felt like flinching back from her anger. She may have been small, but Klance didn't doubt her ability to break his arm.  
"Look, I froze. The last two times I split up, it was against my will. Kinda shakes you up a bit." He retorted, folding his arms defensively.  
Pidge glowered at him but her anger started to fade away. "You really are different from Keith and Lance." She murmured.  
Klance shifted under her gaze, "That's what I've told you. I'm not Keith, and I'm not Lance, I'm just me. I'm a mix of them, and I know that I am them, but I'm not. It's hard to explain without feeling it yourself."   
Pidge nodded and walked toward him, sighing.  
"Ok, you gotta unfuse though. But... I can cover for you if you wanna go out tonight. I'll cover your tracks and you just... Relax. After the last few days, your probably a little nuts anyway." She chuckled.  
Klance gaped but smiled, "Thanks Pidge. That'll be great. I've wanted to see the outside for a while now."  
Pidge smiled and went back to the carts, waiting for their next batch and for Klance to unfuse.  
The fusion took a breath in and willed himself to press his fingers against his gems, grimacing at the uncomfortable feeling of his form being pulled apart, and all that was left was Keith and Lance, holding eachother hand in hand.  
They pulled their hands apart and looked away, a light blush on their faces.  
"So, guess we are going out tonight?" Lance asked, rubbing the back of his neck.  
"Yeah, I guess we're going out." Keith said before realizing what he said, his face getting hot while Lance gave him his signature flirtatious "look".  
"Oh we are? Well that's news to me. Should I start calling you 'babe' now or-"  
"You know what I mean!"

The day was pretty uneventful. Thankfully, there were no accidents down in the mines, and almost all of the crystals had been removed from the planet- save for a few stragglers. Hunk either forgot about what happened in the cargo area or just wrote it off as Pidge being weird. Keith and Lance rarely left eachothers side; cracking jokes, making small talk, and just acting like normal people. It was much more relaxing than worrying about Klance or the crystals. Of course, that didn't mean their plans weren't off.  
Lance was giddy with anticipation, waiting for his clock to hit 11:00 pm. Once the orange screen showed the time, he smiled and jumped up, grabbing his jacket and sneakily sliding out of his door, making as little noise as he possible could. He made his way toward the hangar where the pods were and found Keith leaning against one. He smiled when he saw Lance and waved. "Hey, you ready?"  
"Yeah, let's go." The blue paladin replied, pulling his crystal from his pocket. Keith followed his example and took Lance's hand, running his thumb over the other boy's knuckles and looking down at their entwined hands.  
Lance looked at him, confused at his hesitation. "What's wrong? Having second thoughts?" He asked  
Keith looked up at him and smiled, "No, I'm not, just... Nevermind, let's go have fun." He pressed his crystal, the soft glow lighting up the space between them.  
Lance quirked his eyebrow but didn't ask, pressing his own crystal and clutching Keith's hand, grinning from ear to ear as brightness engulfed them.  
Klance smiled giddily, climbing into the pod and starting it up. He flew out of the castle, as silently as he could, and made his way toward the city. Despite what the other Balmera looked like, this one was very advanced compared to it. They had buildings carved out of stone and lights hung up by the streets that reminded him vaguely of streetlamps. Even though it was late, there was still a number of Balmerans walking around and socializing with eachother. Klance landed just outside of the city behind a giant rock structure and pulled up his hoodie, shoving his hands in his pockets and trying to stay out of sight. He couldn't help but stare in awe at the small town. It was definitely different from Shay's Balmera but still had some of the same roots. Crystals that gave of light were used to illuminate the streets and buildings, which closely resembled Mayan homes with the way they were built.  
Klance didn't realize anyone was in front of him until he bumped into a small Balmeran woman. She looked up at him in surprise and smiled, "Well hello there. You must be here with Voltron. Excuse my rudeness, but which one are you?"  
"I- uh, Kei- I mean, La- no, I'm Klance?" He answered, backing up a bit.  
"Oh! That's the one. Sorry again, but what are you doing out here sweetheart?" She asked.  
"Oh, just... You know, having a late night walk and stuff." He answered, wanting to back out of this conversation desperately but also feeling comforted by this lady. She was very nice, like a grandma.  
"Well, don't let me stop you," she turned around and waved at him, "have a nice night."  
Klance held up a hand without thinking, "You too."  
He barely missed when her eyes widened in shock. "Wait isn't that... Isn't that a fusion crystal?" She asked  
Klance quickly hid his hand, "Uh, no, no! It's not, it's- uh..."  
The lady squeaked and ran off, tugging on the arm of a much larger Balmeran and his friends, pointing at the fusion frantically.  
'Quiznak, Klance, you just had to be an idiot.' he thought, pulling up his hood and running in the other direction. He could hear the beating of the Balmeran males' feet behind him, which only spurred him on. He looked around for a place to hide quickly and spotted a dark alley. He pushed himself to go faster and ducked into the alley, trying to calm his breathing.  
"Where did the fusion go to? Prox will not be pleased when he has word of his existence." One Balmeran said.  
Klance picked up and rock and threw it toward the other alley across the road, grabbing the attention of the group of Balmerans. He leaned back against the cold stone of the building and breathed heavily before it turned into breathless chuckles. And then a laugh.  
"I, I can't believe we just did that!" He laughed, pushing back his hair. His gems glowed warmly, a dull light resonating from them, but the pull didn't feel uncomfortable. He let himself be split apart and Keith and Lance were left laughing against eachother in the darkness of the alley.  
Lance's laughter barely died down, but he looked down at Keith, still laughing with joy, with a fondness he could still barley explain.  
But he knew enough.  
Without thinking, Lance wrapped a hand around Keith's head gently and pulled him up to meet his face, barely centimeters away, before placing a small kiss on his lips. Keith looked up at Lance in shock, and Lance's awkward chuckles died down.  
"Sorry, I just thought... After what we'd been through... I don't know, I'm sor-" Lance was cut off by Keith flipping them around, pushing Lance against the wall instead, and pressing in for a deeper kiss.  
"You talk too much," He muttered against the Cuban boy's lips, "shut up." Lance smiled and wrapped his arms around Keith's shoulders and complied with no retort, just enjoying having Keith in his arms under the Balmeran night sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YES THEY FINALLY DID THE THING! However, this is definitely not the end of this story, we still have to see what happened with those Balmerans that saw Klance. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you guys next Sunday. BYE


	8. Chapter Eight

The next morning was when everything went South. Prox had gotten word of the fusion loose on the Balmera and immediately told Allura who had gotten unbelievably angry and... Even afraid.  
Keith and Lance sat side by side at the table, tightly gripping eachothers hands from under the table, as Allura looked at all of them with a worrying gaze.  
"So, all of you know by now that there is a fusion on this planet. While I am not sure if it is completely human, the Balmerans definitely noticed human attributes." She took a breath and leaned on the table, looking down at her tense hands and looking back up at the team.  
"Who is willing to confess?"  
Everyone was quiet. Keith and Lance gave eachother anxious looks and tightened their grips. What would Allura think if she knew it was them? That they were the ones fusing? For that matter, what would she do to them? Kick them off the team? She couldn't do that, no, but who knew what she was willing to do. These crystals were obviously important to her in someway.  
The princess cursed under her breath and walked around the table, taking note of each paladin. "You will not be harmed, if that's what you are thinking. I just... I need to know."   
Keith looked up at her from under his bangs, looked at Pidge across from him, who was fiddling with her hands on the table; and then at Lance, who's eyes flicked on the floor as his mind raced a mile a minute. Keith couldn't stand to see that stress on him, but what would happen to them if he told Allura about Klance.  
Keith took one last look at Pidge, who had apparently already guessed what he was thinking, considering she was shaking her head at him.  
Keith took a deep breath and stood up, "It was me. I- I took one of the crystals." He admitted, pulling his crystal out of his pocket as if to prove it.  
Everyone looked at him in shock. Allura's face was tight and rigid, not knowing how to react to this. Keith focused in on Shiro, Who looked at him in disbelief and... Pity? Disappointment? Keith couldn't tell, but it made his stomach churn.  
Allura coughed, "I see... Well then, I think tha-"  
"Wait, it wasn't just him," Lance spoke up, standing up with Keith and looking defiantly at the princess with his crystal raised, "it was me too."  
The room turned speechless again before Hunk and Pidge stood up in outrage.  
"Why didn't you tell me? I thought we-" Hunk was cut off by the Green Paladin,  
"What are you two doing?" She yelled, looking at Lance and Keith as if they were nuts. She and Hunk started to try and tell over eachother before a fist slammed down onto the table. Everyone looked at Shiro, but he was leaning forward on the table with his head in his hands; no one knew what he was thinking.  
It was Allura who had slammed her hand down, gaining everyone's attention.  
"That is enough!" She snarled. She looked at Keith and Lance, holding eachothers hands, and had a moment of realization.  
"You are just like them," she muttered in shock, "all those years ago... No," she shook her head, dismissing her thoughts, "no, his is some silly obsession, just like last time. That's why you did it."  
Keith inhaled sharply and stepped forward, only held back by Lance who still held his hand, "What do you know about why we did this? Huh?" He glared at her and tried to move forward again, but Lance pulled him back toward himself.  
"Allura," Lance said hesitantly, "I don't know what happened with these crystals that made you so angry, but this isn't an obsession- I swear."   
Allura glared at him, "That is just those crystals talking for you, you don't know what you're talking about." She snapped but kept her composure.  
Coran placed a gentle had on her shoulder, "Princess, please, calm down. They don't know what they have gotten themselves into." He said soothingly.  
"Then they must learn!" Allura growled and looked back at the boys, "whatever you're feeling is just some... Silly phase. It will pass once you two are seperated."  
Lance and Keith tensed up.  
"Seperated?" Lance murmured, "no, no, you can't seperate us! We're fine, we haven't done anything wrong."  
"Fusion is dangerous and wrong! We found that out long ago," Allura argued, "I won't let another accident happen again."  
"Accident? So now we're an accident to you?" Keith snarled, his crystal growing hot in his hand- almost forgotten.  
"That's not what I meant!"  
"Oh, I know exactly what you meant."  
"Keith, calm down, we're not getting anywhere." Lance tried to calm the hot-headed paladin, running his thumb over Keith's knuckles.  
Keith took a deep breath in and backed away from Allura before speaking,   
"Look, there is nothing wrong with us. Klance isn't dangerous." He explained.  
Allura, however, was not as easily calm. She looked disgusted at them and reeled back, "You don't understand what could happen to you two. You don't know what happened."  
"Oh please," Lance finally butt in, giving way to his sass, "it can't be that bad? What could Keith and I ever do that would be a danger to anyone?"  
"Not a danger to us, a danger to you! You'll both end up just like Histriah and Kobe!" She screamed, tears streaming down her face.  
Everyone sat it silence.  
Allura never cried.  
Coran pulled a chair for her and sat her down as she controlled her sobs.  
"They- They didn't mean to." She whispered through tears, "they didn't know what would happen... But, they fused one too many times and they couldn't stay away..." She paused and wiped away her tears, looking up at Keith and Lance with bloodshot eyes, "We tried to take Histriah back to Altea. She had a job and her mother missed her but... She couldn't leave Kobe on the Balmera. They fused and ran away and-" she choked on her words.  
"And what?" Hunk pressed.  
"And we found their bodies down in the mines." She murmured grimly. "Suffocated after a collapse. Never stood a chance."  
Lance tightened his grip on Keith, both of them looking at the other and then back to Allura. Surely neither of them would do something like that, would they? They weren't obsessed like this Altean was.  
"Allura, I know you're concerned, but we're not like that." Lance reassured her, taking a step toward her chair.  
Allura glared up at him, "Yes, and I'll make sure of it." She said curtly and stood regally, "I will ask you once: give me your crystals and let Shiro escort you to your cells peacefully. I will keep you there until I know you are... Cured of this."  
Keith gaped, "You can't do that! We're not some prisoners you can lock up!"  
"Allura, Keith and Lance can't just be held captive for know reason, they don't deserve that." Shiro argues, standing up with a gentle hand out to Allura.  
The paladins argued over eachother but Allura just slammed her hand down an silenced the room.  
"That is none of my concern! They did break the law, fusion is a punishable offence by Altean law; therefore, I can place them in cells until further notice."  
Shiro snapped his mouth shut, his jaw twitching in slight anger.  
Keith and Lance could feel their crystals heating up with their rising emotions, knowing what would come next but not even caring.  
"This is for your own good." She finalized, stepping toward them. Keith and Lance stepped back, their light forming between their clasped hands.  
"No, you can't make us." They said, letting the light spread over them. Klance stared down at her, defiance and anger and hope present on his face.  
"You are not seperating me."   
Allura took a step back as if burned. The rest of the group looked in awe at the fusion. Klance clenched his fists and looked around for an exit, but Allura already had planned this.  
"Coran, Shiro, they could be dangerous, get them. They need to be seperated, I won't let them hurt themselves."  
Coran nodded and jumped in front of Klance, holding his arms up like you would do for a stray dog.  
"I'm sorry boys, but I was there when Histriah disappeared. I can't let that happen again." He apologized and grabbed one of the fusions arms, holding tightly. Shiro sighed and grabbed the other and kicked the back of Klance's knees, effectively pinning the taller male to the ground. "I'm sorry, but we don't understand this yet. Give me some time to talk to Allura, this'll blow over soon."  
Klance struggled against their grip, trying to free himself but to no avail. He panicked even more when he couldn't catch sight of Allura.  
'Where is she?' he thought frantically.  
His question was answered when he felt a pulsing shock up his spine, crawling through his nerves like spiders. He screamed painfully as the electricity fried every part of his body, splitting him apart piece by piece.  
Keith and Lance were left as unconscious heaps on the floor, groaning and hissing from the pain.  
"I'm sorry." Allura said, remorsefully, as she held an electrically charged baton in her hand. She straightened up and looked at Shiro and Coran, both still keeping a hold on each boy.  
"Take them to a cell, far away from eachother; let there be no contact between them. We will fix this, I'm sure of it." She ordered.  
Both males gave her a solemn nod and dragged Keith and Lance out of the room in silence.

When Keith woke up, he was immediately alert. He jumped up and looked around at his surroundings, finding that he was in a grey cell with a cot in a corner. He turned to see a light blue force field blocking his prison from the rest of the world. What shocked him the most was that Shiro was standing on the other side, watching him like he was some zoo animal.  
Keith could have asked a million questions at that moment, but the first one he had to answer was "Where's Lance?"  
"Safe. Coran took him to another cell, but he's fine." Shiro answered.  
Keith scoffed, "As fine as he can be considering he was just electrocuted by his teammate."   
"I didn't know Allura would do something like that, Keith," Shiro promisded, moving closer to the force field, "but it's not like she didn't have a reason. We don't know a whole lot about fusion, and Coran and Allura obviously don't have a good history with it."  
"Its not dangerous!" Keith insisted, his hands clenching, "Lance and I were completely fine every time we fused. We didn't get obsessed or forget the mission or anything! We just did it because-" he stopped abruptly before he could go on, heat crawling up his neck and to his cheeks as he put his head down.  
Shiro cocked a brow, "Because?"  
Keith took a deep breath and sat down, leaning against the wall.  
"I don't know why we did it. At first it was just to see what it did but now... Shiro, you can't possibly know how it feels." Keith chuckled under his breath, looking up as he thought of the warm, loving feeling that came from being Klance or just being with Lance.  
Shiro sighed and shook his head with a small smile, "No, I guess I can't know."  
Keith's smile died, his ever present frown back. "How long until I can see him again."  
"I don't know. Hopefully soon."  
Keith nodded and turned away from Shiro. "Thanks; for being here, I mean."  
"Of course," Shiro said, walking away before stopping for a bit, "I'll be back later with some food."  
Keith nodded and closed his eyes, ignoring the sound of the door shutting and ignoring the painful silence it brought. He rubbed his thumb over his knuckles as he tried to fall asleep, imagining that Lance was still there with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for the late update, I was busy last Sunday because iT WAS MY BIRTHDAY!!! 


	9. Chapter Nine

When Lance woke up, he was a little slower than Keith. His eyes fluttered open and he groaned in pain. He slowly sat up and rubbed his sore back, trying to recollect what had happened.  
'Something about me and Keith... No Klance; and Allura was mad... About the crystals?' he thought and put two and two together. His eyes widened with a gasp and he backed away quickly, hitting his back against the wall and realizing where he was: the Altean cells.  
Lance finally calmed down enough to realize there was someone on the other side of the cell, and his face twisted in loathing.  
"Lance, you're finally awake," Allura said calmly, clasping her hands together and looking down at them, "I am terribly sorry for our circumstances, but-"  
"'Circumstances'? Electrocuting me and Keith, forcing us apart, and then locking us in cells are pretty bad 'circumstances', princess." He spat, as if he had swallowed venom.  
Allura was taken aback but remained calm, taking in a deep breath. "I understand you are... Upset... But we couldn't just let you two stay like that."  
"Stay like what? Happy? We weren't fighting anymore, Keith was finally opening up to me, I wasn't as homesick with him; what part of what we had was so awful?"   
"You two were dangerous!" Allura defended, "Neither of you truly knew what can happen when you fuse- the threat you pose to yourselves and others."  
"Oh please, we aren't the Galra! We're not the bad guys, and we know our limits. We weren't a danger to anyone." Lance argued, standing up to be eye level with Allura.  
"And if the Galra saw you two? What if you two were fused and were caught up in battle? Then you two would be captured and studied and these crystals would have been found. We can't risk that."  
Lance groaned and paced around, his mind working overdrive. Allura had no right to split him and Keith apart, it wasn't right; but, on the other hand, it wasn't like the Galra couldn't find them one way or another- that had already been proven more than once- so what was stopping them from taking Klance away for good?  
Lance took in a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He looked back up at Allura with a frown.  
"That doesn't make what you did right."  
"What's right doesn't matter now. What keep the two of you and the rest of the team safe is more important, and if that means keeping the fusion seperated, then that is what I will do." Allura finalized, turning away and walking out of the cell block, but stopping at the door.  
"I really am sorry for this, Lance, but I will not take any chances."  
And with that, she was gone.

The ship was silent. Only the sounds of marching feet could be heard in this otherwise lifeless place.  
"Sir, there are some who say Voltron has been spotted on a local Balmera."  
"Hmm... Is there any evidence supporting this?"  
"Yes sir, a small fleet had gone to analyze the situation and found them on the Balmeran surface; but that is not all."  
"Oh?"  
"There are rumors that they have been collecting fusion crystals from the planet's mines."  
"Ah, now that does sound intriguing. Set a course for this Balmera. The emporer will be pleased with this development."  
"Vrepit sa."  
"Vrepit sa indeed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry you guys for the short update, I wanted to post this part but didn't have enough time to make it as long as the other ones. I hope you still enjoyed it and I'll see you guys next Sunday!


	10. Chapter Ten

Days went by slow. It seemed like an eternity between each visit from Keith's teammates. While a part of him appreciated the fact that they were worried about him, he was too angry to really think much about it. His time in his cell was spent usually banging against the cells walls, demanding to be released, or bargaining with whoever stopped by to let him out or let him see Lance.  
The answer was always the same.  
"Allura says you can come out soon, I promise, but it's just gonna be a while..."  
Keith groaned as he banged his head against the force field blocking him from freedom. He knew it couldn't have been too long since the ship had left the Balmera but had yet to make it to the Olkari. Keith didn't know what would happen to him and Lance once the team got to their destination; most likely, they would be kept in their cells until Voltron was needed. It was selfish, but even Keith had to know it was Allura being practical. Maybe after that, she would let both of them out.  
But that's not what scared him the most.  
Keith wante- needed to know how Lance was. After being seperated for so long, it was taking a toll on him. No one told Keith how Lance was doing or if there were any changes in his behavior or what he thought about Klance at all, and it worried him. What if Lance agreed that it was just an obsession spurred on by fusion? Keith knew deep down that wasn't it and that Lance would be the last person to think like that, but those parasitic thoughts kept creeping back into his mind over and over again.  
"Keith, you alive in there?"  
Keith jolted and looked up to meet Shiro's eyes. His demeanor softened only the slightest bit at the sight of his brotherly mentor.  
"Shiro, hey," Keith greeted halfheartedly. He stretched and stood up to meet Shiro's eye, "are you going to tell me where we are now?"  
Shiro gave a small smile, "Only a few vargas away from Olkarion. I think after all the fusion crystals have been moved, Allura will let you guys out."  
Keith sighed and leaned against the wall, "So no more fusion?"  
"No more fusion."  
Keith crossed his arms and glared down at the cold floor, keeping quiet.  
"You'll be ok with that, right? Not gonna do something stupid?" Shiro asked jokingly.  
"Yeah... No? I don't know. Shiro, you still don't get it," Keith finally turned around to look Shiro in the eye, a new fire lit up, "it's not just about fusion, it's being close to someone again. You'll always be like my brother, Shiro, but... It's something different with Lance."  
Shiro looked down at him with almost a sad fondness, if that was possible.  
"I get it, I do; maybe not on your level, but I understand. I think Allura also understands to a certain degree, but fusion is still pretty dangerous. I'm sure this will all blow over in the end.'  
"You keep saying that, but I wouldn't be surprised if Allura kept this over mine and Lance's heads." Keith admitted darkly.  
"Keith don't-"   
But Shiro was cut off abruptly from a blaring alarm ringing through the castle's halls. The speakers buzzed and Allura's voice could be heard over the incessant blaring.  
"Paladins! The Galra have found us! I don't know how, but they have made their way into the cargo bay- They are stealing the crystals!"  
Shiro's eyes widened in slight panic. He looked back at Keith who's jaw was tight. The black paladin gripped his fists tight and sighed, "We'll need all hands on board." he said as he moved to a small pad by the cell and typed in a couple of characters before the cells wall dissipated. "You're lucky Allura trusted me with the code, come on!"

When Lance heard the alarms go off, he had to admit that he started to panic. No one had come to see him or warned him about what was happening, so he was left banging on the cell wall, demanding to be released.  
"Let me out! What's happening out there? Allura? Shiro? Keith?!" He screamed, but no one came to his calls.  
Lance growled and kicked at the door before debating trying to break out. It's not like he had anything, just a metal and stone cot, and himself. He perked up when he heard footsteps walking toward his cell.  
"Allura? Shiro? Hunk? Thank Quiznak whoever you are! What's happening? How is the fight against the Galra? Who--" Lance was cut off by his own gasp.  
Instead of a teammate coming to find him, it was a large, powerful Galra who's presence alone demanded attention. The right side of his face was matted and burned with raised lines and unfixed scars, like if he was caught in a fire. His right arm mirrored his face-- rough and scanned from flames-- but his right hand was completely gone, replaced by Galra technology not unlike Sendak's.  
This Galra stared at Lance predatorially as the paladin desperately moved to the back of his cell. There was no way this brute could get into the cell, right?  
The Galra chuckled as if he could read Lance's mind.  
"You're a cute little thing, for a human of course." He said in a deep, gravely voice.  
"I think I will take you as a pet. Call it spillings of war." He chuckled and raised his mechanical hand, it's claws glowing with energy. He took a look at the control panel by the cell and, with a roar, stabbed his claws through the machine, ripping it to bits.  
Lance let out a shriek as sparks flew, but became even more terrified when the shield started to flicker and fade away. The Galra stepped through and picked Lance up by his throat, making him choke as he gripped and clawed at this monster's arm.  
"Let's get back to the ship. I've heard a lot about these Fusion Crystals and plan to see just how powerful they can be."  
And with that, Lance was carted off with the Galra, screaming silently for his teammates to find him.  
But no one could hear him.

The majority of the drones were crushed beneath their feet. Keith kicked the head of one for good measure. It felt good to be out of the cell, but fighting Galra robots wasn't exactly what he planned to do once they were out. Not like he was complaining though.  
"Good job team, I think that's the most of them." Shiro complemented, patting Hunk on the back.  
"Yeah, but a few of them got a cart." Hunk reminded, pointing to where the cart had once been standing.  
"It's better than them grabbing all of the crystals in one swing. I count this as a win." Pidge said, poking and prodding at a Galra drones head with her hand.  
"Still, I don't want to think about what they might do with those crystals," Allura commented, worriedly chewing on her thumb, "we should hurry and set a course for their ship. It couldn't have gotten far."  
She gave a sharp nod to Coran who saluted and went off, probably to set coordinates for the Galra ship.  
"In the mean time, I'm gonna go check on Lance." Keith said, turning to walk away but was stopped. Allura grabbed his wrists and held him back,  
"We've discussed this, you cannot see Lance until you are completely clean."  
"Oh please! I just fought off at least three dozen Galra, you cannot tell me that I am going to turn and--" Keith was shut up by Shiro, who stepped between the two.  
"I'll take Keith to go see him. Lance should be checked on anyway." He said and walked with Keith out of the cargo bay.  
Once they were out of earshot, Keith started to mutter to himself.  
"She still thinks I'm going to fuse with him? He's still locked up and we've been seperated for days!"  
"I know, Allura is just being cautious though. She only dealt with this once and it didn't end well. Trust her." Shiro advised,  
"How can I trust her when she doesn't trust me?" Keith asked.  
Shiro sighed and looked forward, opening the door for the cellar but gasping in shock.  
"Oh, no." He murmured.  
"What? What is it? Shiro?"  
"Keith, go back to the cargo bay." Shiro demanded, stone cold.  
"What? No, why would I--"  
"Keith please, you don't need to--"  
Shiro was interrupted when Keith darted under his arm and pushed through the door, only to see a mess of metal and wires in front of an opened cell.  
Lance's cell.  
"Oh Quiznak, no no no." Keith ran to the cell, praying that by some miracle Lance was still in there. But it was empty.  
"Shiro! They took him! They took Lance!" He yelled, searching for any clues as to who took him.  
"Keith, calm down, we'll find him." Shiro promised, laying a gentle hand on Keith's shoulder. Shiro pressed the comm button on his helmet and started to speak, "We have a problem. Lance is gone; he was taken by the Galra. Yes, there is evidence eof forced entry and Lance isn't capable of it. Ok." Shiro ended the comm link and looked down to Keith, who was seething with worry and adrenaline and pure rage.  
"Keith, he'll be ok."  
"I know he will. But I'm finding the Galra who took him and ripping him to shreds."


	11. Chapter Eleven

Keith would be lying if he said he wasn't stressed out. He paced the ship aimlessly while Allura searched for the ship that had broken into the Castle of Lions. He ignored the rest of the team save for Shiro, who had tried to get him to talk but was snarked at by a feral Keith.  
Keith finally stopped with a groan, leaning against the cool wall, waiting for any notice from Allura that they had found Lance. Keith felt a hollowness in his chest that had been there since he and Lance were seperated. A paranoid part of him thought that it was some side effect from fusing, but he knew that wasn't it. He missed him, and it hurt. But he wasn't about to tell anyone that. They would cough it up to just being an obsession from the crystals, but Keith knew it was more.  
He loved Lance.  
And he needed him back from the hands of the Galra.

Lance stared in silent horror while the Galra who took him ran his claws through the crate of crystals he had stolen. The Galra chuckled as he held up a crystal to his eye, observing it thoroughly in the purple light of their ship.  
"You probably do not know who I am, little one." He turned to look at Lance and smiled, the scarred flesh of his face stretching horrifically.  
"I am called Karsatz, I was a general who led the search for these crystals for years for our emporer, Zarkon. And now, all of this," he swam his hand through the crate again, the tinkling of crystals echoing through the room, "belongs to the Galra Empire.  
"It's a shame your friends fail to realize the power they hold in their palms," The Galra said in a gravelly tone, moving over to Lance and grabbing his cheeks roughly, pulling his face to take a good look at the crystal, "these crystals were used to create weapons beyond comprehension, that could tear apart enemies in the blink of an eye. I'm surprised your princess hasn't harnessed their abilities."  
Lance gulped, the pain in his cheeks echoing through the rest of his rigid body. The Galra grinned sinisterly and pushed away the human boy, letting him fall back in his chains.  
"Of course, it didn't only make machines stronger, many citizens of different races combined together to reach a greater power." He turned back to Lance, his shadow looming over the petrified paladin.   
He reached for another crystal and tapped it's center, the once comforting glow casting an evil light on Lance.  
"Let's see how powerful we can become, blue paladin."

"We found the ship! It's docked in a nearby astral belt." Allura shouted through the castle, gaining the attention of the rest of the team.  
Keith ran to where the rest of team was, crowding a screen that had a map of the astral belt and a close up of the Galra ship. Keith grit his teeth at the thought of the Galra paying for what he had done.  
Keith felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and looked to see Shiro looking down at him sternly.  
"Calm down. He'll be fine." Shiro muttered to him before walking forward to address the team.  
"All right team, we're going to have to be stealthy for this mission. Lance is stuck in there with who-knows-how-many-Galra in there. Most of their sentries are destroyed, but that doesn't make it any less dangerous." Shiro pointed to Pidge, "Pidge, I'm going to need you and Hunk to break through any possible defenses while Keith, Allura, and I go in. We'll fly in with Red and Allura can use her connection to the Balmera's crystals to lead us there."  
Everyone nodded in understanding and got to work. Coran stopped the castle just short of the belt and Hunk and Pidge worked on disarming the systems while Keith, Shiro, and Allura boarded into Red, exiting the castle and flying toward the ship.  
"All right," Pidge's voice echoed through the comm, "the security system will be offline for around 20 ticks and we opened up their docking bay. Get in there fast before they start up again."  
Keith hummed in acknowledgement and flew the red lion as fast as he could, headed straight for the docking bay to land. Once they stopped, they scanned the area for any guards, only finding three sentry drones that Keith made quick work of.  
Keith kept his sword at his side and walked right behind Allura, keeping an eye out for any Galra that was inbetween him and Lance.

There was barely anything that scared the Galra. Nothing could come in the way between the Galra Empire and complete control of the universe, not even fear.  
However, this... This thing was horrifying. They were told that emotions could affect the fusion, but... They didn't know it could be like this.  
"S-sir... I mean, sirs, or... Uh, the system is back online. One of the sentries recorded footage of Voltron's castle nearby."  
There was a deep grumbling from the dark. It sounded conflicted and in pain, but a deep voice rumbled through the room,  
"Let them come. I will deal with them myself."  
"Yes sir."

"We're close, I can feel it." Allura promised, keeping quiet. It was strange that they hadn't seen any other Galra, but Keith refused to think about that. He perked up when he saw a faint glow from one of the rooms, but one that was familiar.  
"There, they're in there." He pointed and quickly ran to the room despite Allura calling for him.  
He turned sharply, a threat on his tongue and his sword at his side when he saw it.  
An amalgamation or Galra and human characteristics that looking like something out of a nightmare. It had two pairs of eyes and a grotesque, fanged snarl on a light purple and scarred face, and it had three arms protruding out of its brawny torso at odd angles. It wore a mixture of Paladin and Galra armor that melted together like syrup on its skin, but the worst thing was the eyes. Two of its eyes was the generic Galra yellow, a sickly mustard color, but the two under it were tear soaked and that beautiful ocean blue that Keith had come to love, but the whites of those eyes were slowly being corrupted by that yellow that kept Keith awake at night.  
The creature grinned-- or maybe grimaced, Keith couldn't tell-- and growled out something unintelligible that sounded so unlike Lance.  
"Keith, what happe- Oh my..." Keith heard Allura gasp as she and Shiro rushed into the room, taking in the sight in front of them-- the monster that took Lance's eyes for itself.  
Keith felt rage bubble inside of him, bringing tears to his eyes that burned holes into the beast. He wanted it torn apart beneath him, as if that would bring Lance back to him. He wanted to rip it apart with his own hands, tear the crystals out of it himself, anything to give him back the paladin who stole his heart.  
"Paladins, I knew you would come. I was Karsatz, and I was also the puny human you called Lance, but he isn't with us right now. I'm glad you can see us like this, with all of this power and-- even better-- with all of this knowledge about you."  
It turned to Keith and it's lips turned up into a malicious smile.   
"Excuse my manners, welcome, Keith! I have to say, I'm glad it's you who gets to see our new form. Lance has told me all about you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for the wait, I actually forgot it was Sunday until now... Anyway, hope you enjoyed this part and also have you guys seen season 6 yet? ITS AMAZING!!!


	12. Chapter Twelve

Everything was black. No, not quite black. A deep, rumbling, sinister indigo that didn't let the blues and purples mix together well, as if oil and water were put together. It was chaos.  
A panicking flash of blue.  
'Please, don't make us do this. I don't want to do this.'  
A violent pulsing purple over took it.  
'It doesn't matter what you want, I am in control of us. You have no say in this.'  
Blue again, except stronger and fierce.  
'I'll stop us. You can't keep me down, not forever.'  
Purple, suffocating the blue, keeping it smothered like a blanket.  
'No, not forever. Just long enough for us to kill him.'  
A startling pulse of blue, frantically trying to escape the dark purple.  
'No, we can't! Make us do anything else, but don't hurt him. Don't hurt any of them!'  
The purple covered the blue, keeping it trapped underneath itself. The blue cried out, timid and afraid.  
'You don't get to decide for us. You are weak. I am doing you a service, the red one won't love you after we are done, and do you expect the rest of your team to welcome you with open arms after seeing you like this? You are filthy, and I am the only one who can stand to fuse with you after this. Know your place, little one.'  
The blue sank quietly into the purple, dimming out until it was nearly unrecognizable.  
No color.  
Then, a flash of purple, violent and bloodthirsty.  
'Good, now let's finish what we have started.'

Keith saw red. A burning, crimson red. Lance was trapped in that... That thing and was probably terrified, fighting as hard as he could against the Galra imprisoning him in his own body. With a malicious cry, Keith summoned his sword at his side and lunged, not thinking straight as he swung his sword violently. He ignored the screams and calls of his name, ordering him to stand down. All he saw was the Galra keeping Lance from him.  
He was only a few inches from the fusion, ready for the attack, when it's face contorted in pain and fear, the blue of its eyes brightening and it's complexion slowly turning the soft golden tan Keith knew and loved.  
"Keith, please!" It cried in a voice that was so painfully Lance it stopped the red paladin in his tracks.  
Before Keith could blink, the fusion's face shifted back to the sickening Galra's as it raised a clawed arm and smacked Keith to the side powerfully. Keith landed with a this against the metal wall, crying out in sudden pain. He glared up at the fusion, it's mouth turned up in a fanged smile as if it had just told the funniest joke in the world. Keith stood shakily to attack again but was stopped by Shiro.  
"Keith, wait, that's still Lance in there. Calm down." He reminded him, keeping an eye on the fusion that was lumbering in their direction.  
"What's the matter, paladins? You're not afraid of losing the pathetic blue one, are you?" It asked, sarcasm dripping off its tongue. It threw it's head back in a roaring laugh, the scars on its face stretching painfully.  
"This little one is useless, worthless! I'm surprised you would even consider keeping a broken seventh wheel. I'm doing you a service keeping this one." It snarked, it's voice sounding less split and more like a combination of Lance's airy and bouncy voice and Karsatz's gruff and gravely voice, both finally agreeing with eachother slowly until it split apart again.  
"You won't last here, not while we are attached together."   
Keith snarled and tried to claw at the creature but Shiro kept a hold of his collar.  
"Keith, you know fusion better than any of us," Shiro started, leaning into Keith's ear so the fusion couldn't listen, "how can we seperate them?"  
Keith took a deep breath, clearing his head to think of the possibilities.  
"We would have to touch their gems to deactivate them, like Coran said. That will tear them apart. The only problem is that I don't think their gems are on their palms, I didn't see them or feel them at all."  
Shiro nodded and pulled Allura close,  
"Ok, we'll try that. Here's the plan: Keith, you distract the thing while Allura and I look for the crystals. Remember, don't engage. Once they are located, we'll pin it down and seperate them."  
Keith and Allura nodded and got to work. Keith drew his sword and charged, trying not to aim for anything that wasn't covered by thick armor. Shiro and Allura ran around the beast, looking at it from every angle while simultaneously parrying it's attacks. The things growled and cursed from each blow it was given, snapping it's jaws and swinging it's claws at any paladin it could reach.  
Keith thrusted his sword against it's chest, the two metals clashing and making sparks fly. Keith knew he couldn't keep it distracted for too long, either getting too tired and getting caught or becoming careless and accidentally hurting Lance. He swung his sword with a grunt, repeating the motion until his blade was caught by a metal death grip. The creature smirked and raised Keith off the floor, holding him up triumphantly.  
"You are pathetic," it snapped nastily, it's yellow eyes glowing in triumph while the ocean blues stared pitifully. It gripped Keith's neck, causing the red paladin to choke and claw at it's hand.  
"Keith!" Shiro and Allura cried, rushing to help their teammate but being whacked by the other two arms of the thing, slamming both of them against eachother and the metal wall. The two of them fell limp, their soft groans the only thing proving that they were both alive.  
Keith tried to call their names but was cut off by the hand wrapped around his throat crushing his windpipe.  
"You think you can stop me? There is two of us and your friends are crumpled on the ground! I will take Voltron for the Galra Empire and have the rest of your team killed, captured, or fused for the rest of their miserable lives, just like Lance!" It yelled in victory, his claws digging into Keith's neck painfully.  
Keith kicked against it's chest fruitlessly, his eyes hazing over and his grip on the monster's hand weakening. He looked past the disgusting creatures scarred and deformed face, it's sick yellow eyes and fanged, slobbery smile. He looked past the light purple and large ears and random patches of fur on it and looked to it's second pair of eyes, the beautiful blue he had come to love and trust.  
Keith gave one last try at fixing this; at getting his Lance back.  
"L-Lance! I know you're in there. I know you can hear me." he gasped, his voice hoarse and shaky.  
The creature shuddered and backed away, keeping a hold of Keith but loosening it's grip around his neck. It's eyes widened, the yellow in fear and the blue in hope.  
"Lance, I know you're scared. I have no idea what that monster told you, but you have to fight him!" He was dropped to the floor as the thing visibly fought against itself. It's features morphed and shifted, at times being more human before Galran took over.  
Keith coughed and rubbed his sore neck but walked forward, hiding his fear under pure determination.  
"Lance, remember what we were? THAT was fusion, not this. This isn't what Klance was, don't you remember?"  
The fusion fell to the ground, looking as if it was trying to escape itself. It clutched it's shoulders with two arms and squeezed itself, the third-- more human-like-- arm reaching towards Keith. Bits pieces of it glowing and flashing on and off, as if half of it was trying to unfuse. Keith took a risk and got to his knees, crawling toward the half-crazed beast.  
"Come back to me, Lance, you have to come back to me. We need you," Keith reach out a hand and took the human hand gently, holding it as if it would break from one wrong move, "I need you."  
The fusion screamed in anger and pain as more parts of it glowed and fluctuated. It thrashed it's head from side to side and grapes tighter around itself, trying to hold itself together but inevitably failing as the light surrounded it and broke it apart, leaving Lance and the Galra general, Karsatz, nearly unconscious on the ground.  
Keith reached out for Lance and pulled him to his chest, moving away from Karsatz who was shakily trying to stand.  
Lance moaned and looked up at Keith tiredly, his face drained of blood and his body lacking any strength. He still managed to clutch onto Keith's suit with frail hands, muttering under his breath "I'm sorry"'s   
"Sh, no Lance, it's ok; it's not your fault." Keith promised, brushing away his hair and looking back up to see Karsatz who was looking down at them in horror and burning hatred.  
"You." He spat.  
He let out a mighty cry and smacked Keith away from Lance and left him skidding on the floor. Keith rose up and drew his sword, glaring at a bloodthirsty Karsatz.  
"You haven't won paladin," the Galra lumbered toward Keith, his stature weak from the toll of the unhealthy fusion, "I still will have my fusion and will bring you, your friends, and these crystals to Zarkon. I don't need Lance to do it."  
Keith was about to attack when he saw Shiro slowly crawling toward Lance from... The crystal crates? Keith turned his attention back to Karsatz and rushed toward him, slashing his sword downward to meet his skin. Karsatz blocked but was forced down from the blow, leaning on one knee on the ground. He glared up at Keith and pushed himself forward, whacking the red paladin away from himself. Keith continued to attack, not letting up with all of his strength while Karsatz continued to block. They had pushed eachother against the crates, Karsatz's back against them while Keith grit his teeth and pressed his sword against his neck.  
"You've lost. Surrender." Keith ordered.  
Karzats let out a laugh and stuck his hand down into the crate grabbing a handful of crystals. Keith shot back and watched as the Galra laughed and laughed and laughed, as if he had already won the battle. He moved against the wall of the ship to a control panel by the door and, instead of escaping, pressed a button on it while continuing to threaten Keith with the crystals. The alarms went off on the ship and Keith looked to him in confusion.  
"You think this is the end?" He chuckled, the pounding of footsteps echoing through the halls, "I am just getting started."  
Dozens of Galra sentries stood behind Karsatz, holding their guns to Keith and the rest of the team.  
Keith, Shiro, Lance, and a now awakened Allura stood tense for Karsatz's plan, ready for the fight for their lives only to be extremely dumbfounded when Karsatz threw his handful of activated crystals at he sentries, attaching themselves to the robots. Karsatz ran toward the fusing robots, activating his crystal, and jumping into the clustered fusion, letting his own light join the large, bright burst of light.  
Keith watched in horror as a giant mess of flailing limbs and grotesque body parts emerged from the fading light. Pieces of machines stuck out from the purple body in the center. It had an almost uncountable amout of purple and yellow eyes on a metallic face that had a fanged, monstrous grin. Its body was humongous, metal, and thick, with four arms protuding from it's torso. It's legs looked like the body of a horse, with three pairs of legs on an extended part of it's torso that was more Galran than robotic. It looked like one of Haggar's monster's, but worse because this Galra had joined it willingly.  
"Now try to stop me." The creature hissed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about this being late, it was originally supposed to be the end but I kinda decided that it needed another chapter... Anyway, now you have more to look forward to but it's almost finished! Hope you enjoyed this part of the story and I can't wait for you to read the end of this story, I'm having so much fun writing this. It's honestly been a blast. Anyway, see ya next week!


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Lance could barely grasp what was happening at that moment. One minute, he was in the dark and out of control, the next he was lying on the cold floor with a ringing noise in his ears, muffling the sounds of the two colored blobs above him. He felt something warm slip into his hand, the black and white shape above him mouthing orders to the blue paladin while wrapping his hand around the thing in his palm. Lance tried to move his head and see his surroundings and gain some knowledge about what was going on, but all he saw was grey and purple with flashes of light.   
"L.. nc..."  
"La...c..e"  
Lan..ce..."  
"LANCE!"  
Lance's vision cleared bit by bit to find Shiro and Allura above him, craddling his body in their arms.  
"Lance, come on, you have to- Keith! Watch out!" Shiro cried over his shoulder, his face stoic and sure, but his eyes were panicked and unfocused. Allura was the same way, her hands cold against Lance's skin.  
"Shiro? Allura?" Lance slurred, trying to sit up, "wh-whats happened? Where's Keith?"  
Allura bit her lip and looked over her shoulder. Lance followed her gaze to see Keith single handedly fighting off a creature that could make Zarkon quiver in fear.  
"Oh my... Keith!" Lance screamed out, trying to crawl out of Allura's arms to reach him. Keith looked over at Lance with wide eyes that softened even in the heat of battle.  
"Lance, you're ok! I-" he was cut off by a massive arm scooping him up and throwing him to the floor. Lance grit his teeth and tried to pull himself forward but was stopped by Shiro.  
"Lance, no, you have to listen to me!" He ordered, struggling to keep Lance in his arms while the blue paladin flailed against him.  
"No, he's gonna- that thing will kill him! Shiro, let me go!" Lance demanded, his voice cracking in terror as he watched Keith stand and ready himself for another attack. Shiro pulled Lance close and tipped his head up so they could look eachother in the eye.  
"Lance, listen closely, take the crystal to Keith. You two have to fuse again, beat that thing at its own game." Shiro explained, pushing Lance's hand towards his chest. Lance looked up at him with large eyes, shocked.  
"B-but you and Allura-- you two said that--"  
"I know what we said! We were wrong, we shouldn't have split you two apart, that wasn't our call. Now, you need to help him in a way you can. Please." Shiro's eyes seemed less hard and battle ready, and his grip on Lance slacked. Lance looked to Allura who was looking away, obviously conflicted on Shiro's solution. Lance turned back to his leader, his expression hard as stone. He nodded and willed himself up, stumbling over to Keith. He felt the crystal in his hand warm up comfortably, and memories of being one with Keith, experiencing things for the very first time and loving it, flooded his senses.  
Memories of waking up and seeing himself for the very first time, a sword and a rifle combine into a bayonet that fit him perfectly, running through the streets and laughing as he was chased like it was all one big game to him, dark brown hair, galaxy eyes, wonder, contentment, excitement,  
Love.  
Lance grit his teeth and pushed forward, grabbing Keith's hand before he could rush back into battle.  
Keith looked at him, surprised,  
"Lance, wha-"  
Lance pressed a crystal into Keith's hands, activating it for him, and pulled him close and away from battle, the creature rearing up for another attack.  
"I want to do this together, like it started." Lance breathed, his lips shaky and getting closer and closer to Keith's, the space between them closing as light formed in their hands and up their limbs.  
"You can't do this alone, but we both can, Keith." Lance clenched his eyes closed and pressed their lips together in a quick, yet love filled kiss, trying to get everything he was thinking and feeling to Keith.  
"I love you."  
And the whole world went white.

Shiro hadn't seen anything like it. This wasn't like the carts fusing together or how Allura made it sound so terrifying or how all of the drones had melded into one; this was pure art. The way the two of them had molded together, how their lights mixed like paint. It was a dance the two of them shared and hid together. Shiro looked to see Allura looking away, as if she knew that this wasn't for her eyes, but Shiro could only watch in awe.  
What was Keith and Lance was gone. What was left was something extraordinary.

Klance barely felt any pain. The sheer joy of being completed again washed away any unbearable pain, only leaving soft aches under his skin. He smiles to himself and looked up to see the creature that was once a respected general rear up and snarl.  
"What is this?" It hissed, fangs bared and glistening in the light, "You are broken, blue paladin, unfit to fuse with anyone! Break away and let me remind you who you truly belong to."  
Klance felt himself grow cold, fear trailing through his veins.   
'I am ok, he can't hurt me. I won't let him.' he thought to himself, heated pride rushing through him.  
"You're wrong!" Klance spat back, his Bayard forming at his side, taking a brave step toward the beast, "Lance isn't yours or anyone's, and he won't allow himself to be broken by a monster like you!"  
The thing roared, slamming it's fists against the floor and shaking the ship to it's core.  
"You disgusting, vile, putrid mess of a fusion! You're a bug compared to me, a creature I can crush under my feet." It hissed, bending down close to Klance as if threatening to swallow him whole. It's mouth was turned in a fierce grin and it's eyes were all pointed towards Klance.  
Klance just chuckled and summoned his bayonet at his side,  
"I'd like to see you try."  
And with that, he thrusted the blade into an eye, erupting a roar from the creature's throat as it threw it's head back in pain, not before Klance pulled his weapon from its eye. The beast snarled and snapped it's teeth together, lunging for Klance again on all of its legs like an animal, thrashing it's head side to side as it tried to snatch up its enemy in it's grasp one way or another. Klance dodged as well as he could, shooting up at the thing as he moved. He jabbed at the monster's skin when it got too close, leaving cuts that must have felt like small pinpricks to it.  
'This isn't working, I need a different approach than just stabbing at it.' he thought to himself, looking around for any leverage. He looked over his shoulder to call to Shiro and Allura only to be struck in horror as they single handedly fended off troop after troop of Galran droids in the doorway. If he had turned back to his own battle sooner, he might've noticed the huge paw-like hand swing close and whack him against the wall, knocking him against a crate that spilled over. With a groan, he rubbed his head to see what he hit to find packs upon packs of Galran explosives. Klance shot away from the weapons only to find they were deactivated and brand new. He looked to the monster that was slowly, threateningly, creeping its way back towards him with a sinistra chuckle and then to the explosives, a devilish smile making its way on his face.  
He stood and pulled the crate up with him, pushing it with him to the other side of the room before grabbing another one and another one, spreading them out.  
"Shiro! Allura! Get out of here!" He cried out to his teammates, who were slowly but surely making a dent in the growing droid numbers.  
"What are you talking about?" Allura called back, breaking the head off of a robot and chucking it away, "we aren't leaving you two!"  
"Klance, that's crazy, you're not staying with that thing!" Shiro pointed up at the monster who was chasing Klance around as he moved across the room.  
"Just do it! I'll be right behind you!" Klance promised, his eyes darting between the crates he had pushed around.  
Shiro and Allura took one look between themselves and then back to Klance. The fusion saw Shiro's jaw tighten and his eyes close in thought before turning back to the swarm and slicing his way through to the other side with Allura in tow. Klance thanked the stars that they were going to get out and hoped that his communicator was still working after being thrashed around like a toy.  
"How noble you must feel, sacrificing yourself for your friends when you know there is no escape," the creature spat, clawing at Klance as he ran around it, "pathetic. You think you have a chance to beat me?"  
"I don't need to beat you" Klance shot back, admiring his work one last time as the Galra droids closed in on him, "I just needed you to stand in one place."  
And with that, Klance ran as fast as he could, activating each crate or explosives in his dash before sprinting out of the room, locking the monster and the rest of the droids inside with it. He ran through the ship, counting down the ticks until they all detonated while activating his communicator.  
"Allura? Shiro? Are you out?"  
"Yes, we're waiting in Red right now, where are you, I-" Klance cut Shiro off quickly, trying to speak through panting breaths,  
"No time, activate Red's particle barrier if you can, this whole thing is about to blow!"  
"Kei- Lan- Klance, if you hurry up, then we'll set up the shield!" Shiro declared, bits of his resolve chipping away with each word,  
"I'm trying! But those crates are gonna go off any tick now, and I-"  
There was a loud crash and a flash of yellow. Bits of steel and other debris shot past Klance's head before massive chunks of the ship crashed into him.  
And then everything was dark.

Keith woke up falling, barely catching himself as he landed on the floor. He couldn't remember where he was or what had happened, all he could recall was a flash of light and something hitting his back and--  
"Lance!" He cried out, frantically searching for his partner.  
"Over here, I'm ok... Or at least, I've been worse." Lance chuckled, waving an arm up from a chair across the room.  
"Where are we? What happened? I thought we were still fused and on that ship and then--" Lance stood up and grabbed Keith's shoulder gently, comfortingly, easing him into quietness.  
"It's ok, we got out, we're at the castle. Karsa-- that... Thing... Is gone now, he won't be back." Lance explained, fiddling with his hands nervously.  
Keith's shoulders slumped, exhaustion finally setting in. "That's... Good. That's great, I-- uh, I'm glad you're ok."   
Lance chuckled, "Same here, but I'm glad you're ok too."  
The two sat in awkward silence until the medbay door opened, Allura and Coran standing in it's threshold. For a moment, Lance and Keith were worried they would be split up again and taken back to their cells, tightening their grips on eachother in fear, but Allura had a soft expression.  
"Don't worry, you won't be going back into a cell. That was... Barbaric of me, to say the least. I am incredibly sorry for my actions."  
"Yeah, barbaric isn't the word I would use to describe her." Lance whispered under his breath, pulling a small chuckle from Keith.  
"Anyway, you two were asleep but we made it safely to Olkarion. The Olkari and the rest of the team are transferring the crystals we have into the city. Including yours."  
Keith was about to snap but Allura beat him, saying, "I know what you are about to say, but it's for the safety of all of us now. Karsatz knew we had those crystals and even kidnapped Lance because of them. If word got out that two of the paladins still were able to fuse together, the Galra would take their chance. We don't want that to happen to either of you."  
Lance flinched at the memory of being stuck with Karsatz, at being held prisoner in his own body.  
"Keith, maybe it's for the best. I-- I don't think I'd be comfortable fusing after that anyway." Lance admitted, holding onto Keith's arm tightly.  
Keith looked down at Lance and pondered to himself before sighing in defeat. "Yeah, I get it. No more fusion."  
Allura nodded once and smiled, "Who knows, maybe one day the two of you can fuse again after this war is over. I would love to get to know Klance a bit more."  
Keith and Lance gaped at her as she walked out of the room, talking to Coran over her shoulder as she left, leaving the two boys alone again.  
"So, what now?" Keith asked,  
"Honestly, I'm hungry. Let's get some food." Lance answered with a grin,  
"Of course, we just risked our lives and we're near death, and the first thing you can think about is food." Keith rolled his eyes, but didn't fight as he was dragged to the kitchen.  
"Shut up, you love me!" Lance sneered playfully.  
Keith smiled softly, taking a small moment to remember all of the things that made them Klance and all of the things that made Lance Lance.  
"Yes I do." He muttered softly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry this took so long. I actually meant to post this last Sunday but my internet ran out and I couldn't finish it so I had to wait. Hope it was worth it though! Now this story is completely wrapped up, but I really hope you've enjoyed this story as much as I have. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time!


End file.
